india

Updated: May 03, 2019 02:30 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a meeting to review preparedness to deal with a severe cyclone that was due to make landfall Friday.

Officials said Modi was briefed on Cyclone Fani’s likely path and the preparatory measures being undertaken. Tens of thousands of people are being evacuated along the country’s eastern coastline in view of the cyclone.

An Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin said the cyclone is the “longest sustained” storm in the Bay of Bengal. The cyclone had formed at 8.30 am on April 26.

IMD officials attributed the storm’s long sustenance to a combination of very high atmospheric and ocean temperatures. The ocean temperature, where the storm lay on Wednesday, was 31 degrees Celsius. “Warming of ocean temperature aids in intensifying a cyclone,” said IMD’s meteorology director general, M Mohapatra.

IMD’s director general, KJ Ramesh, said this is the longest storm in terms of life-cycle over the Bay of Bengal in April. “The ocean temperature is very warm during this time. Due to global warming, there is additional warming over all oceans. The Bay of Bengal is no exception. The atmosphere is also very warm. A combination of the two makes cyclones last longer. Recurvature of the cyclone is also usual. Within the Bay of Bengal, this is the longest staying cyclone ever.”

The IMD bulletin said the storm was about 360 km south-southwest of Odisha’s Puri on Thursday. It was likely to move north-northeastwards and cross Odisha coast between Gopalpur and Chandbali by Friday afternoon with a maximum wind speed of 170-180 kmph. A storm surge of about 1.5 m height was likely to inundate low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur districts of Odisha.

Gale wind speed gusting to 200 kmph was likely to prevail along South Odisha and adjoining North Andhra Pradesh coasts. Gale wind gusting to 85 kmph was likely to prevail along the West Bengal coast, the bulletin said.

It also warned fishermen against venturing into the sea. It said “heavy to very heavy and extremely heavy fall” was expected at several places in Assam and Meghalaya on Saturday. The IMD predicted a “heavy to very heavy rain” rainfall in Odisha, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh and “heavy rainfall” in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

In a tweet, Union earth sciences ministry secretary, M Rajeevan, said only 14 severe tropical cyclones were formed over the Bay of Bengal between 1891 and 2017. And only one of them crossed Indian mainland. Fani is the second storm to have formed in April and is crossing the mainland. The last such storm – Nargis – in 2008 hit Myanmar.