Cyclone Pabuk to bring heavy rainfall in Andamans

The Indian Meteorological Department on Friday said that a cyclonic storm, namely 'Pabuk', which has centred itself over the Gulf of Thailand, is very likely to move northwestwards and emerge into the Andaman Sea by tomorrow forenoon (January 5).

On Friday morning, the cyclonic storm moved west-northwestwards from the South China Sea region and centred itself over the Gulf of Thailand, between latitude 8.3 degrees North and longitude 101.0 degrees East, about 990 km east-southeast of Port Blair. Therefore, it is very likely to cross the Andaman Islands around the evening of January 6, IMD said.

The weather agency, in a statement, said that the storm will recurve northeastwards towards Myanmar coast and weaken further by January 7.

"The cyclonic storm will recurve towards Myanmar. According to latest data, no cyclonic situation for Odisha but because of cyclonic activities near the Andaman Islands, weather in Odisha's coastal district will be cloudy and dry," said GC Bahera, scientist IMD.

IMD has issued an alert regarding heavy rainfall over the Andaman Islands from the evening of January 5.

The sea condition will be rough to very rough over the Andaman Sea along and off south Myanmar and Thailand coast from today evening. It also is very likely to become very rough to high over the Andaman Sea on January 5th and over the adjoining areas of East-central and the southeast Bay of Bengal on 6th and 7th of January, the IMD further informed.

The weather agency did not forecast any sign of rainfall. However, fishermen have been asked to stop their fishing activities in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal over the next 72 hours.