A deep depression on the Bay of Bengal is tipped to intensify into a cyclone and make landfall in Bangladesh early on Saturday.
The cyclone will be called Midhili, a name given by the Maldives. It means a huge tree, said Ram Krishna Jaiswal, honourary consul of the Republic of Maldives in Kolkata.
This is going to be the second cyclone on the Bay in less than a month after Cyclone Hamoon, which hit land in Bangladesh on October 25.
The city is likely to get light to moderate rain on Friday and Saturday, the Met office has said.
The Telegraph decodes the storm.
Position
Around 5.30pm, the deep depression was over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal.
It was 210km from Paradip (Odisha), 330km from Digha (Bengal) and 450km from Khepupara (Bangladesh), said a Met bulletin issued around 10.20pm on Thursday.
“It is likely to continue to move north-northeastwards, intensify into a cyclonic storm and cross Bangladesh coast between Mongla and Khepupara... by the early hours of November 18,” the bulletin said.
Till early Thursday, the system was moving north-northwestwards towards the Andhra Pradesh coast. “After turning into a deep depression on Thursday morning, it took a recurve and started moving north-northeastwards,” said a Met official.
Landfall
The system is “likely to continue to move north northeastwards, intensify further into a cyclonic storm during next 24 hours and cross the Bangladesh coast... by the early hours of November 18 (Saturday),” said the Met bulletin.
The storm is headed towards coastal south-western Bangladesh. It is expected to hit land between Mongla and Khepupara.
Mongla is a small port town in the Khulna division. Khepupara is in the Barisal division. Both are over 300km from Kolkata.
According to the IMD projection, the system is likely to turn into a cyclone between 5.30pm and 11.30pm on Thursday.
Power
Midhili is going to be weaker than its predecessor, Hamoon, which had turned into a “very severe cyclonic storm” on the Bay.
Midhili, in contrast, is not expected to grow any stronger than a cyclonic storm.
According to the Met projection, Midhili will be in its most potent avatar between early morning and afternoon of Friday. Still on the Bay, it is expected to unleash winds clocking “70-80kmph, gusting up to 90kmph”, said the forecast.
It is expected to start losing steam from late Friday.
By Saturday afternoon, it is expected to have weakened into a deep depression again.
At the time of landfall, Midhili is expected to unleash winds clocking 60 to 70kmph, with gusts up to 80kmph, said the Met forecast.