- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has made a forecast that Cyclone Mocha forming over the Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into a severe storm by Friday (12) and it could see wind blowing at speeds of 130 kilometres per hour (kmph).
The well-marked low-pressure area developed into a depression on Tuesday (9) evening, resulting in high wind speed over the south-east Bay of Bengal, the meteorological department said.
The name Mocha (Mokha) is suggested by Yemen after the Red Sea port city of Mokha, which had introduced coffee to the world hundreds of years ago.
Cyclonic storm Mocha intensified into Severe Cyclonic storm at 1730 IST of today .It lay centered near latitude 12.2 N and longitude 88.0 E about 520 km west of Port Blair 1100 km southwest of Coxs Bazar Bangladesh at 1730 hrs IST of today the 11th May pic.twitter.com/V8cUOGPTth
— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) May 11, 2023
It also said that the weather is expected to turn into Cyclone Mocha over Wednesday (10) and Thursday (11), packing wind speeds of 80-90 kmph and reaching to 100 kmph.
The weather system is expected to shift initially north-north-westwards till Friday (12) morning and later towards the Bangladesh-Myanmar coast, the IMD added.
On Wednesday, the IMD tweeted, “Deep Depression lay centered near 10.0 N and 88.4 E, about 510 km west-southwest of port Blair, 1320 km south-southwest of Cox’s bazaar (Bangladesh) at 1730 hrs IST of today the 10th May. To intensify gradually into a cyclonic storm by tonight.”
According to the IMD, Cyclone Mocha will be at its peak intensity around Saturday (13) evening and is likely to weaken slightly from Sunday (14) morning. It predicted that the cyclone is likely to make landfall off the coast in Myanmar around 12 am (local time) on Sunday.
Six teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deployed in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal ahead of the cyclone. While three teams were deployed in east Midnapore district, the other three were deployed in South 24 Parganas district. Two teams were also deployed in North 24 Parganas district.
Bangladesh’s state minister for disaster management and relief Enamul Rahman said like on previous occasions, the country’s government has alerted the army, navy and coast guard to deal with any situation caused by the cyclone. He said preparations have also been taken in case the cyclone changes direction and concerned people have been alerted, DD News reported.
Rahman also said that Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar face a greater threat of landslides due to rain and high speed wind and preparations have also been taken for their safety, DD News added.
