Deep depression over Bay of Bengal loses steam, crawls to 3 km per hour, says IMD
Earlier in the day, it was moving at 13 km per hour and was expected to strengthen into a cyclone by Wednesday night.
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CHENNAI: Keeping Chennai and its neighbourhood in suspense, the deep depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal slowed down to a meteorological crawl, delaying its expected intensification into a cyclonic storm.
According to the bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the deep depression lay centred about 500 km south-southeast of Chennai at 5.30 pm on Wednesday after moving slowly at a speed of three km per hour during the six hours prior to that.
Earlier in the day, it was moving at 13 km per hour and was expected to strengthen into a cyclone by Wednesday night.
It is “very likely” to continue to move north-northwestwards skirting Sri Lanka coast and intensify into a cyclonic storm during next 12 hours, it said, adding, “Thereafter, it will continue to move north-northwestwards and reach near north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts as a deep depression around the morning of November 30.”
Before it lost steam, the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, had issued orange and yellow alerts for coastal districts of Tamil Nadu for the next three days. The weathermen had also forecasted that strong winds were likely due to the weather system prevailing over the sea.
