Cyclone Thane to Intensify Further in Next 12 Hours
posted on Dec 29, 2011 @ 12:28PM
The Weather department has alerted that the severe cyclonic storm Thane is heading right towards the coastline. Cyclone Thane is likely to bring with it strong winds, very heavy rainfall and a high surge of waves.
A Met bulletin said cyclone Thane, situated about 450 km east-south-east of Chennai, is likely to intensify further in the next 12 hours and move in a westerly direction. It is likely to cross the northern Tamil Nadu coast between Nagapattinam and Chennai near Puducherry this Friday morning. While heavy rains are expected at many places along coastal Tamil Nadu and a few parts of Andhra Pradesh, the intensity would increase with heavy to very heavy precipitation from Thursday evening.
Squally winds reaching up to 50 to 60 kmph are likely to commence along the coastal districts from Thursday. Gale force wind with a speed of 100 to 110 kmph, gusting to even 125 kmph speed at times, would prevail along northern Tamil Nadu and Puducherry at the time of landfall. Tidal waves with heights of 1.1 metres would inundate low lying areas of Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Cuddalore, Villupuram and Nagapattinam districts and Puducherry at the time the storm crosses the coast.
In Andhra Pradesh, the sea was very rough all along the coast in Nellore and Prakasam districts. Fishermen of the coastal habitations of Ramalinga-puram and Chinnramudu-palem alleged that their catamarans and boats which were kept close to the sea were damaged because of tidal waves on Wednesday. Except for rough conditions in the Bay of Bengal, the weather remained as usual with a clear sky here on Wednesday.