The southern districts of West Bengal, together with Kolkata, woke as much as mild rain and an overcast sky on Monday as cyclone ‘Sitrang’ moved in the direction of north Bay of Bengal, elevating the probability of a downpour in the course of the day and threatening to dampen Diwali festivities.
The system is predicted to make a landfall between Tinkona island and Sandwip in Bangladesh early on October 25, the Met division mentioned.
It lay centred round 430 km south of Sagar Island on Monday morning, the division mentioned.
Sitrang, which is prone to intensify additional right into a extreme cyclonic storm, will herald its wake heavy to very heavy rain and wind reaching pace of 90 to 100 kmph, gusting to 110 kmph, within the coastal districts of South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore on Monday, the climate workplace mentioned.
It’s going to set off heavy to very heavy rain in North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas on Tuesday, it mentioned.
Kolkata and the adjoining districts of Howrah and Hooghly are set to expertise average to heavy rainfall on Monday, the Met mentioned.
The widespread rain, anticipated later within the day, is prone to forged a shadow on Diwali and Kali Puja celebrations within the state.
In Kolkata, the wind pace might attain as much as 50 kmph, affecting marquees arrange for Kali puja celebrations.
The morning rain, nevertheless, couldn’t, dampen the spirits of devotees who turned up in droves early within the day on the well-liked Kali temples of Kalighat, Dakshineswar and Thanthania in Kolkata.
The climate workplace mentioned that the Sunderban area in West Bengal and Bangladesh is prone to get closely impacted by the cyclone.
Torrential rain, accompanied by wind gusting as much as 100 kmph and excessive tidal waves, could harm kutcha embankments and roads and disrupt energy and communication strains within the area, it mentioned.
The deputy director common of the regional meteorological centre right here, Sanjib Bandopadhyay, has mentioned that the breach of kutcha embankments, owing to the storm surge accompanied by excessive astronomical tide on new moon, could result in sea water inundation of low-lying areas.
Tidal waves are prone to attain a peak of six metres owing to the dual impact of the climate system and astronomical tide.
A Kolkata Municipal Company official mentioned steps are being taken to sort out any state of affairs which will emerge within the metropolis owing to Sitrang.
“All pumping stations are totally energetic. Folks residing in dilapidated buildings are being shifted to native colleges or group halls,” he mentioned.
Fishermen have been suggested to not enterprise into the ocean on October 24 and 25.
Ferry companies in Sunderbans and water-bound vacationer actions at seaside resort cities of Digha, Mandarmoni, Shankarpur, Bakkhali and Sagar have additionally been suspended as a precautionary measure.