Cyclone Mocha Intensifies Into Severe Storm, Rainfall Alert Issued

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Thursday issued a bulletin forecasting that Cyclone Mocha has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm at 5:30 pm.

''Cyclonic storm Mocha intensified into Severe Cyclonic storm at 1730 IST of today. It lay centered near latitude 12.2 N and longitude 88.0 E about 520 km west of Port Blair 1100 km southwest of Coxs Bazar Bangladesh at 1730 hrs IST of today the 11th May,'' the weather forecasting agency.

On Wednesday, IMD-Kolkata's Deputy Director General Sanjib Banerjee said cyclone Mocha will not likely to have much impact in Indian coast. "The landfall of the cyclone will be between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Fishermen and people have been warned not to venture near the sea," he said.

The first cyclone of the year in the Bay of Bengal, named 'Mocha' (pronounced 'Mokha'), is expected to hit the Bangladesh-Myanmar border on Sunday. The weather agency issued a warning about the cyclone, and in response, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has put its units on high alert.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams also arrived in West Bengal's Digha in the evening to ensure preparedness and minimize the impact of the cyclone.

Rainfall alert:

According to the IMD notification issued that Tripura and Mizoram are likely to experience rainfall in most places on May 13 and May 14. Some isolated areas in these states may receive heavy rainfall. Similarly, Nagaland, Manipur, and south Assam may witness rains on May 14 with heavy rainfall in certain areas.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall on May 12, 13, and 14.