Gujarat is already facing floods due to heavy rains. The severe cyclone ‘Asna’ forming in the Arabian Sea has increased the concern further. The Meteorological Department has issued an alert of cyclone formation over the Arabian Sea. This cyclone is special because after 48 years a cyclone is forming in the Arabian Sea in the month of August. This is the first storm of its kind after 1976. The Meteorological Department has said that this cyclone can move towards west-south till Oman. Pakistan has named this storm ‘Asna’.
The Meteorological Department has said that this is the first storm to form in the Arabian Sea in the month of August after 1976. The Meteorological Department said, the formation of a storm in the Arabian Sea in the month of August is a very rare event. Earlier, whenever storms have formed in the Arabian Sea in August, they have weakened by the time they reached the coast. In 1964 also a cyclone had developed which weakened by the time it reached the coast.
Winds can blow at a speed of 65
The Meteorological Department has advised fishermen not to venture into the sea. Winds can blow at a speed of 65 km per hour on the coasts of Gujarat and North Maharashtra for the next two days. From 1891 to 2023, only three cyclones have formed in the Arabian Sea in August. According to the Meteorological Department, this year from June to August, Kutch and Saurashtra have received more than 700 mm of rain. Whereas normally there is 430 mm of rain here.
Authorities in the district have asked people living in huts and temporary houses to take shelter in schools, temples or other buildings. Following the IMD warning, Kutch District Magistrate Amit Arora issued a video message asking people living in Abdasa, Mandvi and Lakhpat talukas to leave their huts and kutcha houses and take shelter in a school or other buildings.
He has appealed to the local people to come forward to provide shelter to such poor people in their homes till Friday evening. IMD said, ‘The deep depression formed in Kutch and adjoining areas is likely to move westwards over the north-east Arabian Sea during the next 12 hours and intensify into a cyclonic storm. After this, it will move west-northwestwards away from the Indian coast during the next two days.’
Following the IMD warning, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel reached the State Emergency Operations Centre in Gandhinagar on Thursday night and spoke to Arora about the district administration’s preparedness through video conference, an official release said. If the deep depression turns into a cyclone, it will be named ‘Asna’, a name suggested by Pakistan. It is a rare occurrence that a deep depression over land has turned into a cyclonic storm in the sea. Not only this, it is also rare for a cyclone to form in the Arabian Sea in August. “During this period, the sea condition will be rough, high waves will rise and wind speed may reach 75 kmph along the Gujarat coast,” the IMD said. (With inputs from Bhasha)