The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday said the depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal and the adjoining south Andaman Sea will intensify further into a deep depression during the next 24 hours.
"Yesterday’s well-marked low-pressure area intensified into a depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining south the Andaman Sea at 5:30 AM today. To intensify further into a Deep Depression during the next 24 hours," IMD informed in a tweet.
"Depression over southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining south Andaman Sea lay centered at 0830 hrs IST of today, about 110 km north-northwest of Car Nicobar (Nicobar Islands)," it added.
Further, the national weather forecasting agency has issued rainfall warnings for Andaman and Nicobar Islands and said that light to moderate rainfall/thundershower at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and isolated extremely heavy rainfall are very likely over the Andaman Islands and isolated heavy rainfall over the Nicobar Islands today.
Around 100 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed and six relief camps opened in various parts of the islands as a precautionary measure, the officials said.
For tomorrow, the IMD has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and isolated extremely heavy rainfall.
Sea conditions are very likely to be rough to very rough over the Andaman Sea and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal today, the IMD informed.
An advisory has been issued to the fishermen and they have been advised not to venture into the southeast Bay of Bengal during March 20-21, and into the Andaman Sea and along and off Andaman and Nicobar Islands during March 20-22.
Earlier on Saturday, with the year’s first cyclone Asani brewing over the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Administration issued an advisory for fishermen appealing to them not to venture into the sea during the period of the cyclone from March 19-22.
In view of the forecast, the Islands Administration has activated emergency control rooms. Chief Secretary Jitendra Narain on Friday reviewed the Union Territory-level preparations to face Cyclone Asani. All officers were directed to take every effort to ensure the safety of all citizens.
Advisories to Fishermen:
Advisories have also been issued to all fishermen, urging them not to venture into the Andaman Sea and the adjoining south-east Bay of Bengal.
Tourism activities suspended:
Meanwhile, tourism activities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been suspended from March 19 to March 22, in the wake of an IMD warning about cyclonic weather.
What is Cyclone Asani and how it got its name?
Cyclones and hurricanes that create havoc and destruction and even those that don’t, are often given such peculiar names. Cyclones were not identified by any name initially, but the tradition started with a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.
Tropical storms are termed differently in different parts of the world. They are called hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the Pacific, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. Any storm, whose wind speed reaches or crosses 74 miles per hour, is classified as a cyclone.
The naming of cyclones across the globe is a recent phenomenon. World Meteorological Organization is usually the apex body deciding the names. In India, or the storms arising in the Indian Ocean, the procedure of assigning names began in 2000.
As per the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), it is necessary to name tropical cyclones because there can be more than one such system operating in a particular zone
The names are kept according to the rules at the regional level. In the case of the Indian Ocean and South Pacific regions, the tropical cyclone names are allotted in alphabetical order. The name Cyclone Asani was suggested by Sri Lanka.
(with ANI inputs)
