Cyclone Asani update: Strong winds, rain lash Andhra Pradesh, flights cancelled; IMD says storm to weaken in next 24 hours

Severe cyclone Asani, on Tuesday, was raging over the Bay of Bengal, about 300 km southeast of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, packing wind speed of 105 km per hour amidst indication of a gradual weakening later in the day.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), there is a possibility that cyclonic storm Asani may not make landfall on Andhra Pradesh coast and is likely to weaken into a cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours.

The weather office has also warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall at some places in north coastal Andhra for the next two days.

By Tuesday night, the cyclone was expected to inch closer to north Andhra Pradesh coast and then re-curve to move parallel to north Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast after which it was likely to gradually lose steam, the weather office said.

Forecast of heavy rainfall has been made at isolated places over coastal Odisha from Tuesday evening.

#WATCH Andhra Pradesh | Visuals from Visakhapatnam coast as rough sea conditions increase with strong winds due to #CycloneAsani pic.twitter.com/MAZd7LMFs2

— ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2022

To avoid any untoward incidents, fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea and those already out have been advised to return to the coast. Also, a complete suspension of fishing operations over westcentral and adjoining Bay of Bengal have been ordered for 10 and 11 May, and over northwest Bay of Bengal till 12 May.

On Monday, the cyclone was moving at a speed of 25 km per hour but had slowed down considerably and had moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 5 kmph during the past six hours and lay centred at 5:30 am, 300 km southeast of Kakinada, 330 km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), 510 km south-southwest of Gopalpur (Odisha) and 590 km south-southwest of Puri (Odisha), the IMD said.

The weather department has been keeping a close track of the cyclone. Because of the severe cyclone, Odisha and neighburing West Bengal had received heavy to moderate rainfall on Monday.

#WATCH Odisha | Stormy waters on the shores of Puri beach amid rough sea conditions and gusty winds due to #CycloneAsani pic.twitter.com/zLQ5zrUpjw

— ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2022

The weather office said that very high sea conditions were likely to prevail over west-central and adjoining south Bay of Bengal.

It also advised that tourism activities in coastal areas and sea beaches be suspended till 13 May. In Odisha, two to three spells of rain occurred in districts such as Khurda, Ganjam, Puri, Cuttack and Bhadrak.

The cyclone is expected to cause heavy rain in the southern part of West Bengal including Kolkata, Howrah, Purba Medinipur, North and South 24 Parganas and Nadia districts between Monday and Thursday, the weather office had said.

Cyclone Asani is a name given by Sri Lanka that means ‘wrath’ in Sinhalese.

#WATCH | Amid #CycloneAsani strong winds and rain lash parts of Andhra Pradesh. Visuals from Srikakulam district pic.twitter.com/26lq10nmDj

— ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2022

Flights cancelled due to cyclone Asani

Severe cyclonic storm Asani has hit flight operations on Tuesday with several airlines cancelling flights in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam and Tamil Nadu’s Chennai.

Visakhapatnam International Airport director Srinivas informed that IndiGo has cancelled 23 flights, both arrivals, and departures, due to the bad weather. He further said that four Air Asia flights also were cancelled due to bad weather at Vizag.

At the Chennai airport, 10 flights including those from Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur and Mumbai have been cancelled.

Information regarding cancellation was conveyed to the passengers on Monday, said the Chennai Airport Authority.

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