Cyclone Murasu strengthened into a severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal on Monday and is forecast to cross the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Narsapur in the hours after midnight, according to the India Meteorological Department.
The weather system is expected to bring winds of 100 to 110 kmph, with gusts reaching 120 kmph, as it moves northwest towards the coast south of Ongole, IMD said in a release cited by BusinessLine. The department put the crossing window between 11.30 pm on Monday and 4 am on Tuesday.
At 5.30 pm, the storm lay over the west-central Bay of Bengal, roughly 80 km east-northeast of Nellore, 110 km southeast of Ongole and 190 km north-northeast of Numgambakkam in Chennai, the Met office said.
Why it matters
Murasu is the second severe cyclone to threaten India's eastern seaboard within a week, and the timing has left coastal districts with little recovery time. BusinessLine reported that heavy rain was already lashing eastern coastal states on Monday, forcing flight cancellations, putting disaster response teams on standby and moving thousands of residents to safer ground.
The storm's path also carries economic weight. Andhra Pradesh is still counting the cost of the very severe cyclonic storm Arnab, which Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said had caused losses of at least Rs 4,526 crore, based on preliminary estimates. Naidu made the figure public while urging a visiting central assessment team to press the Union government for immediate assistance, according to a PTI report carried by BusinessLine.
Preparations in Prakasam and along the coast
Prakasam district, where the landfall zone lies, has been placed on high alert. District Collector P. Raja Babu said strong winds and high tides had already begun affecting the shoreline, and authorities have started moving vulnerable communities into designated cyclone shelters, BusinessLine reported.
The National Disaster Response Force has spread 37 teams across five states, with coastal Andhra Pradesh as the priority. Thirteen NDRF teams are stationed there, officials said, and additional units were being rushed from Chennai as the storm intensified.
Air travel has been disrupted ahead of the crossing. At least 19 domestic flights were cancelled at the airports in Vijayawada, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam, according to BusinessLine.
Fishermen in the Ongole area have been hauling their vessels out of the water. The Hindu reported that around 400 boats were pulled ashore near Kothapatnam as sea conditions worsened.
The IMD has forecast light to moderate rain or thundershowers at several locations across Andhra Pradesh under the storm's influence.
Rain expected in Kerala, no Bengal warning
The cyclone's reach extends beyond the landfall zone in the form of indirect rainfall. IMD scientist Neetha K. Gopal said Kerala would see widespread rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, driven by a cyclonic circulation off the Kerala coast together with easterly waves or a trough in the easterlies.
She said isolated heavy rainfall is possible, though most of the state should get light to moderate showers. Kerala will not face hazardous weather directly from the cyclone, she added, but the rainfall will pick up once the system nears the coast, crosses it and then weakens.
West Bengal, meanwhile, is not under a cyclone warning despite the storm's threat to Andhra Pradesh, Telegraph India reported.
What to watch
The next few hours will show whether Murasu holds its intensity through landfall. The IMD's wind forecast, the pace of evacuations in Prakasam district and the damage reports that follow the crossing will determine how quickly Andhra Pradesh can press its case for central relief.
