vardha cyclone

Chennai: The very severe cyclonic storm, Vardah is likely to cross north Tamil Nadu/south Andhra Pradesh coast near here on Monday afternoon, said Meteorological Department on Sunday.

According to the weather forecast, Vardah will cross the coast as a cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 80-90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph by Monday afternoon.

The weather office said Vardah is now over west central and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal, about 370 km east of Chennai, and likely to weaken from Sunday evening onwards.

As a result, heavy rainfall is predicted over south coastal Andhra Pradesh, north coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry starting Sunday evening for subsequent 36 hours.

The rainfall intensity will increase gradually becoming heavy to very heavy rainfall (7-19 cm) at a few places and isolated extremely heavy rainfall (around 20 cm) over Chennai, Thiruvallur and Kanchipuram districts of Tamil Nadu and Nellore and Prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh on Monday, said weather officials.

PORT BLAIR:  Cyclone 'Vardah' which is near the Andaman Islands is likely to intensify into a severe cyclone tomorrow morning, officials said.

They said the cyclone, which is lying 240-km west-southwest of Port Blair, is very likely to intensify into a severe cyclone by early morning at around 5 am today.

Very high speed winds accompanied by heavy rainfall are expected as the administration has advised general public to remain indoors.

The cyclone is likely to move northward for some more time and then northwestwards towards Andhra Pradesh coast during the next four days.