In one of the rare instances of its kind, the Arabian Sea had given birth to a second cyclone, named Maha, even as predecessor Kyarr farther to the West of the basin retains a very severe cyclone.

According to renowned US-based meteorologist Philip Klotzbach, this is the first time on record (since 1972) that there have been two named storms (Kyarr and Maha) in the Arabian Sea simultaneously.

Declaring the formation of the second cyclone, India Met Department (IMD) has come out with a graphic (see below) showing the tracks of the cyclones - Kyarr to the left and 'Maha' to the right.

Away from mainland

Initial projections indicate that 'Maha' would take a turn to the West after crossing Lakshadweep and head towards the South Oman-Yemen coasts, sparing any part of mainland India a direct strike.

The transformation from an existing well-marked low-pressure area three times over to become cyclone Maha was as rapid as it was unexpected when it materialised on Wednesday night.

Maha was centred at Wednesday night over Lakshadweep and adjoining South-East Arabian Sea and Maldives area, about 540 km North-North-East of Male (Maldives); 130 km North-East of Minicoy; 240 km South-East of Kavaratti; and 320 km to the West-North-West of Thiruvananthapuram,

It is very likely to continue to move to the North-West across Lakshadweep Islands on Thursday and then emerge into East-Central Arabian Sea. The IMD expected it to intensify into a severe cyclone by tomorrow (Thursday) forenoon over the Lakshadweep area.

It would intensify further into a very severe cyclone by November 2 (Saturday) out into the open waters of the Arabian Sea and retain the status for at least two more days.

The IMD has forecast light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy falls at isolated places over Kerala, Lakshadweep, Coastal Karnataka and South Tamil Nadu during next two days.

Extremely heavy falls at isolated places are likely over Lakshadweep Islands and heavy to very heavy falls at isolated place over Kerala during this period.

Heavy to very heavy falls at isolated place are also likely over Tamil Nadu on Wednesday and over Coastal Karnataka tomorrow (Thursday).

High winds warning

Squally winds with speed reaching 50-60 km/hr gusting to 70 km/hr may prevail over the Comorin-Maldives area during until Thursday noon and decrease thereafter.

Gale winds with speed reaching 65-75 km/hr and gusting to 85 km/hr prevailed over Lakshadweep area

around the system centre during Wednesday night.

This would increase becoming 80-90 km/hr gusting to 100 km/hr by Thursday morning and 90-100 km/hr gusting to 115 kmph in the afternoon over the northern parts of Lakshadweep area; 60-70 km/hr gusting to 80 km/hr over the southern parts of Lakshadweep are in the afternoon.

Gale winds with speed reaching 100-110 km/hr gusting to 125 km/hr may prevail over the South-East and adjoining East-Central Arabian Sea from Thursday evening and increase to 160-170 km/hr gusting to 190 km/hr over East-Central and adjoining West-Central Arabian Sea by the morning of November 4 (Monday).