Cyclone Shaheen to emerge off Gujarat coast by Friday morning; is expected to head Pakistan, no direct threat to India

In a matter of less than a week, another cyclone  has started brewing in the North Arabian Sea. The India Meteorological Department on Wednesday said that, ” The cyclone is expected to develop in the North Arabian Sea by Thursday morning”. This will the second cyclone after Tauktae that will be developed in the basin of the Arabian Sea this year but it may not affect India’s coast directly.

The upcoming cyclone will be developing from the remnants of Cyclone Gulab, that had formed in Bay Of Bengal, crossed the coast of Andhra Pradesh on September 26. Later, its remnants were moved across Telangana, Maharashtra and now lay over Gujarat.

Gulab’s trail lay as a well-marked low pressure over south Gujarat as on Wednesday morning, says IMD. According to the IMD’s bulletin issued on Thursday afternoon, “by Thursday morning, the system will intensify into a depression and continue moving west-northwestward direction. ” It also said that by  Friday morning, “the depression will farther intensify into a cyclonic storm and emerge in the north Arabian sea”. And then, the cyclonic storm will be known as Cyclone Shaheen. The name of this cyclone was proposed by Qatar.

Places like North Konkan, Gujarat, Kutch and Saurashtra remain on ‘red’ alert till Thursday. Some places in Gujarat recorded non stop rains (24 hours) between Tuesday and Wednesday. The places were Umerpada (Surat) – 218mm, Valsad – 160mm, Dholera (Ahmedabad) – 152mm, Vadodara – 102mm, Surat city – 101mm, Bhavnagar – 77mm, Vapi (Valsad) – 67mm and Rajkot – 54mm as reported in the Indianexpress.com.

As per the Indianexpress.com, the cyclone is expected to move away from India’s west coast. It is headed towards Pakistan–Makran coasts and hence, there no direct threat to Indian as yet. The fishermen, however, from India and neighboring Indian ocean countries have been warned  against venturing out into the sea till October 2. Those who are already present at sea have been advised to take themselves to safer places.