Warning of possible cyclone brewing in the Bay of Bengal
Facebook page ‘Weather Watch’ on Saturday posted that the India Meteorological Department issued a warning on Friday that a low-pressure area over the Southeast Bay of Bengal was moving east-northeastwards toward the South Andaman Sea and East Equatorial Indian Ocean.
The low-pressure area is forecasted to intensify into a depression by March 20 and into a cyclonic storm on March 21 and then moved north-northeastwards to Bangladesh and the northern coast of Myanmar by March 22.
Once the system intensifies into a cyclone, it will be named Asani, which is a name suggested by Sri Lanka.
“In the next two days this would-be cyclone could cause Thailand’s southern west coast to experience an outbreak of thundershowers and possible summer storms,” said the post. “This phenomenon is somehow similar to the flood of 2011 in which the South was hit with storms around the end of March, while the pursuing floods had claimed up to 53 lives.”
The Thailand Meteorological Department, however, has not issued an official warning regarding the development of a possible cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. The department has forecast that from March 19 to 25 the upper country will experience hot to very hot weather with thunderstorms, gusty winds, and hails in some areas due to the influence of southerly and the southeasterly winds that bring the moisture from the South China Sea and the Gulf to the upper Thailand
As for the Southern region, the department said that the easterly and the southeasterly winds prevailing across the Gulf and the South will strengthen and bring more rains to the South with isolated heavy rains in some areas from March 23-25.