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Heavy rainfall is expected to commence over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh and coastal Tamil Nadu from Wednesday evening onwards as cyclone ‘Gaja’ nears the coast.
‘Gaja’ is expected to cross the Tamil Nadu coast between Pamban and Cuddalore on Thursday morning accompanied by heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy rain over Tamil Nadu.
It will be heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over Kerala; heavy over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema the same day, an India Met Department (IMD) outlook said.
On Friday, it will be heavy with very heavy rain at isolated places over interior Tamil Nadu; heavy to very heavy rain over Kerala; and heavy over South Interior Karnataka.
A remnant of the cyclone would cross the extreme South Peninsula and emerge as a low-pressure area over the South-East Arabian Sea by Saturday.
Meanwhile, a ‘yellow alert’ has been declared for the Tamil Nadu and South Coastal Andhra Pradesh coasts on Wednesday ahead of the landfall of the cyclone.
The cyclone has moved westwards and was located 660 km north-east of Chennai and 760 km east-north-east of Nagapattinam on Tuesday evening, the IMD said.
It was expected to intensify into a ‘severe cyclone’ into the night and would maintain the status into Wednesday while moving in a west-southwestward direction.
High winds, storm surge
It is during this phase that ‘Gaja’ would start weakening, ahead of crossing the Tamil Nadu coast between Pamban and Cuddalore as a conventional cyclone on Thursday morning.
Squally winds with speeds reaching up to 55 km/hr gusting to 65 km/hr may commence along and off the North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and adjoining South Andhra Pradesh coasts from Wednesday morning. These may increase gradually to gale-wind speeds reaching up to 90 km/hr gusting to 100 km/hr along and off the North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts from Wednesday night onwards.
Storm surge of a height of about one metre above the astronomical tide may inundate the low-lying areas of Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu and Karaikal district of Puducherry at the time of landfall.
Associated damage is expected over the districts of Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram and Karaikal districts.
Meanwhile, as already predicted, the Bay waters off the South Tamil Nadu and adjoining Sri Lanka will remain busy after the passage of cyclone ‘Gaja.’ At least two weather systems, of which one may grow into cyclone strength, are seen riding the waters from South-East to South-West Bay over the next 10-12 days, say forecasts.
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