Cyclone Hudhud Advances Towards Vizag Coast

The Very Severe Cyclonic Storm "Hudhud" is now lying within the range of the Doppler Weather Radar, Visakhapatnam. Hence it is being tracked by the Visakhapatnam Radar since early Friday morning, in addition to through satellite and other observational tools, according to the latest bulletin issued by India Meteorological Department.

According to the latest observations, Hudhud, over West-Central Bay of Bengal, moved west-northwestwards, and lay centered at about 330km south-east of Visakhapatnam, and 380km south-southeast of Gopalpur.

The system will move west-northwestwards for some more time. It will then move northwestwards and cross the north Andhra Pradesh coast around Visakhapatnam by the forenoon of October 12, the Met Department said.

Under the influence of the system, rainfall at most places with heavy (6.5 - 12.4 cm) to very heavy falls (12.5 - 24.4 cm) at a few places and isolated extremely heavy falls (= 24.5 cm) will occur over the West and East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam districts of north Andhra Pradesh, and the Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Kalahandi and Phulbani districts of south Odisha during next 48 hours.

Rainfall will also occur at most places, with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places, over the Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh, and north coastal Odisha during the same period.

Squally wind speed reaching 50-60 kmph and growing to 70 kmph will prevail along and off the north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts during next 12 hours.

The wind speeds will gradually increase to 140-150 kmph gusting to 165 kmph around the time of landfall along & off north Andhra Pradesh (the East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts), and 80-90 kmph along & off the adjoining districts of south Andhra Pradesh (the West Godavari and Krishna districts) and south Odisha (the Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput and Malkangiri districts).

According to the Met Department, the sea conditions will be rough to very rough during next 12 hours. They will gradually turn phenomenal from the 12th morning onwards along & off the north Andhra Pradesh coast, and very rough to high along and off the south Odisha and south Andhra Pradesh coasts.

The storm surge of about 1-2 meters above the astronomical tide will inundate the low-lying areas of the Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam districts of north coastal Andhra Pradesh at the time of landfall. (INN)