Amphan Intensifying as Super Cyclone: Could Be Second Biggest Since 1999

Amphan (pronounced as Um-Pun), the tropical cyclone which originated at the Bay of Bengal (BoB) has gathered strength to become an extremely severe cyclonic storm today, with wind speed gusting at over 230 kilometres per hour. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that Amphan would hit the West Bengal- Bangladesh coasts on May 20, towards afternoon or evening. By that time, as the super cyclone hits the India-Bangladesh coasts along the BoB, the wind speed is predicted to be around 155-165 lm/hr and reaching a maximum of upto 185 km/hr. The super cyclone, till 11 AM on May 19, was moving at a speed of 15 km/hr for six hours before that, as per the latest bulletin produced by IMD. At the time of producing the IMD bulletin, Amphan’s location over West Central BoB, which is about 480 km south of Paradip, Odisha and 630 km southwest of Digha, West Bengal.

In India, as per IMD, the super cyclone is likely to hit Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya islands in Bangladesh.

Heavy wind reaching speed upto 155-165km/hr and gusting to 185 km/hr are very likely to be witnessed along and off the east Medinipur, and North and South Parganas districts of the state of West Bengal. Moreover, Kolkata, Hoogli and Howrah districts are also likely to have heavy wind of speed around 120-130 km/hr, on May 20 towards afternoon, the day the super cyclone is expected make a landfall.

Also read: 'Amphan' Turns Into Supercyclone, to Cross Bengal, Bangladesh Coasts on May 20

In Odisha, the northern parts, mainly Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj districts are predicted to have the blow of the cyclonic wind of speed around 100-125 km/hr and gusting upto 125km/hr.

Super cyclone Amphan could be the second-biggest storm after the 1999 super cyclone that hit Odisha badly. Over 10,000 people were killed in this ravaging cyclone.

Other than these two states which would face the devastating effects of Amphan, Sikkim, sub-Himalayan districts of West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya are likely to have light to moderate rainfall on May 20 and 21.

On May 16t, a depression was found to have formed in the southeast BoB and subsequently, the IMD classified it as a deep depression. This activity over the BoB caused rainfall in Sri Lanka and Southern India. On May 17, the IMD announced that the previous day’s depression had developed into a cyclonic storm named as Amphan. In the same day, the storm rapidly intensified and developed its eye.

The cyclone developed from the category 1 cyclone to a category 4 cyclone within just six hours, according to reports.