The very severe cyclonic storm Vayu is expected to “recurve” and make landfall as a “depression” by midnight Monday near Porbandar in coastal Gujarat, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast on Sunday.
“The system is very likely to move west-northwestwards for about 06 hours and gradually recurve north-eastwards thereafter and cross the north Gujarat coast by mid-night of June 17, 2019, as a depression,” it said in a statement.
Multiple districts
A map of the tropical storm’s trajectory shows it is likely to make landfall in a swathe of area adjoining Porbandar and Junagadh districts.
A depression is the lowest grade of a cyclonic storm and brings wind speeds of 28-33 knots (or 55-65 kmph).
As of Sunday morning, Vayu lay 480 km west-southwest of Porbandar, 445 km west-southwest of Dwarka and 555 km west-southwest of Bhuj. Most of these regions reported wind speeds of 15-25 kmph.
Initial reports from the IMD on June 14 had said that while Vayu might recurve, it was likely to head to Kutch, which is much more north of Porbandar and Junagadh.
Along with the cyclone, according to the IMD, the monsoon had further advanced into the remaining parts of northeast Bay of Bengal, some more parts of northwest Bay of Bengal, most parts of northeast India and some parts of north Bengal and Sikkim.
While recurving cyclones don’t usually threaten to Indian coasts, Ockhi — that skirted through Kerala’s and Tamil Nadu’s coasts in 2017 — was a notable re-curving cyclone.
