Very Severe Cyclone Bulbul is moving in northerly direction towards Gangetic West Bengal and Bangladesh.
While moderate to heavy spells with one or two heavy spells can be seen over the Gangetic West Bengal, scattered rains are possible over the remaining part of West Bengal, Interior Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
As Severe Cyclone Bulbul gets nearer, authorities have started to prepare with the Special Relief Commissioner declaring closure of schools in many districts of Odisha including Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur on November 9.
Wind speed has already increased over Coastal areas of West Bengal and isolated light rains have been witnessed over Gangetic West Bengal.
Now, the Cyclone will move initially in North-northwest direction and thereafter in northerly direction towards West Bengal. Therefore, we expect the cloud cover to increase over the states. The Cyclone Bulbul is set to make a landfall near Sundarban and adjoining areas of Bangladesh. We expect the Cyclone to skirt along southern parts of West Bengal and make a landfall over Bangladesh.
Scattered rains will commence in West Bengal from today afternoon. Gradually, the rain intensity will also increase. We expect heavy to very heavy rains on November 9 and 10 over many districts of Gangetic West Bengal. These heavy rains are likely in southern districts of West Bengal such as Dimond Harbor, Kolkata, Hooghly, Contai, 24 South Parganas, Sagar Islands and Sundarban.
The winds will be very strong from night of November 9 and afternoon of November 10.
Both the Cyclone and flood relief centres along with communication systems are ready for the incoming storm. Also, authorities are ensuring that these shelters are in proper condition. Earlier only, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada had declared holiday on Nov 8 and 9, for colleges, school as well as Anganwadi centres as a precautionary measure.
Cyclone 'Bulbul' over west-central & adjoining east-central Bay of Bengal continues to move towards north-northwestward direction with a speed of 10 kmph during the past six hours. The system is now likely to intensify further while moving northwards till the morning of November 9. Thereafter, it is very likely to re-curve northeastwards and cross West Bengal and Bangladesh Coast as a Severe Cyclonic Storm. This is when very strong winds to the tune of 110-120 kmph gusting to 135 kmph are expected to blow over the region.
According to Skymet Weather, Bulbul is travelling in deep open waters in conducive environment of low vertical wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures.
Credit of News: Skymet Weather