The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning for a potential severe cyclonic storm expected to affect the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh in the coming days. The IMD had previously issued a yellow alert for several districts of West Bengal and a red alert for fishermen in the state.
Director General of Meteorology, IMD, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra says, “Today morning, a depression developed in the Bay of Bengal… It has slowly started moving towards north-north-east directions. As it starts moving northwards tomorrow, it will intensify and develop into a cyclone storm tomorrow morning. And by tomorrow night, it will develop into a severe cyclonic storm. By the midnight of 26 May, it will hit coastal areas of West Bengal when the wind speed will be 110-120 kmph. The wind speed is expected to be higher in Bangladesh. In the North and South 24 Parganas and East Medinipur districts of West Bengal wind speed will be highest. As a result, light to moderate rainfall will begin tomorrow. On 26-27 May, in addition to heavy to very heavy rainfall in West Bengal, extremely heavy rainfall is also expected. Coastal areas of North Odisha can witness isolated heavy rainfall and the kind speed will be 40-50 kmph… Rainfall will lash all the northeastern states and there is extreme rainfall warning in some areas…”