A very severe form of cyclone Fani over Southwest and adjoining westcentral and southeast Bay of Bengal moved west-northwestwards on Tuesday evening with a speed of about 22 kmph in the last six hours and likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm during next six hours and into a “very severe” cyclonic storm during the subsequent 24 hours.
Cyclone Fani is very likely to move northwestward by May 1 evening and thereafter recurve north-northeastward gradually and develop into an “extremely severe” cyclonic storm with 170-180 gusting to 195 on May 2.
As the cyclone Fani is intensifying itself in one of the most powerful tropical cyclones and approaching towards Odisha coast, its location is expected to be between Puri and Kolkata on May 3.It would cross near Udayagiri of Puri district on May 3 afternoon at a wind speed of about 185 kmph and pass through Khurda, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj districts in Odisha before going to West Bengal.
However, few models (JTWC, US) also suggest landfall point near Kolkata and Ganges Delta region. The wind speed is expected to be around 150-200 kmph and above.
Cyclone Fani is likely to get more intense than the cyclonic storm ‘Titli’ which had devastated north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha in October last year. Cyclone Titli had made landfall near Palasa, Andhra Pradesh, killing over 60 people and damaging over 57,000 houses and 2.7 lakh hectares of crop in Odisha.
Weathermen believe the extremely severe cyclone may trigger heavy rainfall in the coastal, southern and northern parts of Odisha and adjoining Andhra Pradesh.
According to Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre of Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), cyclone Fani will move towards north the Odisha coast.
On Friday, at around 11:30 am, it will make landfall between Puri and Paradip as an “extremely severe” cyclonic storm.
The system will further move along the Odisha coast to enter West Bengal and further recurve in the north-northeast direction.
The joint typhoon warning center of the USA (JTWC) has predicted that on the day of landfall, cyclone Fani will have a wind speed between 176 kmph to 216 kmph.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), cyclone Fani will make landfall with a wind speed of 160 -180 kmph and gusting up to 190 kmph on 3rd of may.
It is expected that Puri, Jagatsingpur, and Kendrapara will bear the brunt of the “extremely” severe cyclonic storm during its landfall.
