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Cyclone Ditwah to not make impact? IMD shares key update on landfall
Strong surface winds of 60 to 70 kmph with gusts touching 80 kmph are expected over the north coastal parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Heavy rains lashed across parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as Cyclone Ditwah inched closer towards the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coastline on Sunday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for the north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and nearby south Andhra Pradesh coasts.
Normal life remained disrupted in the coastal towns of Rameswaram and Nagapattinam as heavy rain flooded several low-lying areas. But when will the cyclonic storm finally make landfall?
Follow latest updates related to the cyclone here.
Cyclone Ditwah to not make landfall?
The storm over the southwest Bay of Bengal is now expected to avoid landfall. The IMD has said the system is likely to move northwards along the north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts over the next 24 hours.
The weather office said that as it travels northwards, the storm will remain over the southwest Bay of Bengal at the closest range of about 70 km and 30 km from the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coastline by noon and later in the evening on November 30, respectively.
Notably, other weather bloggers said that the system is likely to weaken into a deep depression. “The cyclone will weaken further into a deep depression and then to a depression inching northward. It is expected that the system to stay in the open water for one more day, dissipating in the Chennai coast without making the landfall process,” one blogger said.
Strong surface winds of 60 to 70 kmph with gusts touching 80 kmph are expected over the north coastal parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The sea is likely to remain high and may slowly ease to very rough or rough by the morning of December 1, with conditions gradually improving afterwards, according to the bulletin.
Cyclone Ditwah: Tamil Nadu, Puducherry brace for impact
Heavy rains continued across many parts of Tamil Nadu, including showers over the Cauvery delta, Ramanathapuram and Nagapattinam, which were among the worst affected.
Due to the cyclone, heavy to very heavy rain in some areas and extremely heavy rain in a few locations are likely in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Villupuram, Chengalpattu, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Tiruchirappalli, Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Ranipet districts, as well as Puducherry and Karaikal, over the next 24 hours.
Tamil Nadu revenue and disaster management minister KKSSR Ramachandran said that 28 disaster response teams are on standby, including SDRF and NDRF units, and 10 more teams are expected to arrive from other states.
The name 'Ditwah', suggested by Yemen, refers to a lagoon and is believed to originate from the Detwah Lagoon, a large saline water body on the northwest coast of Socotra.
