IMD issues a warning to fishermen to remain onshore as Cyclone Hamoon strengthened into a "severe" cyclonic storm

 IMD issues a warning to fishermen to remain onshore as Cyclone Hamoon strengthened into a "severe" cyclonic storm

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the deep depression in the western Bay of Bengal has intensified into a'severe' cyclonic storm.

Iran has given the cyclone the name "Hamoon". Inland desert lakes or marshlands are referred to as "Hamoon" in Persian. In regions near the Helmand basin, they develop as seasonal natural reservoirs.

"Cyclonic storm 'Hamoon' escalated into a severe cyclonic storm over the northwest Bay of Bengal," according to IMD.

Uma Shankar Das, a senior scientist at IMD Bhubaneswar, told ANI that the deep depression that formed yesterday and was moving toward the northeast at a pace of 13 km/hr "is very likely to intensify into a very cyclonic storm in the next 6 hours."

Additionally, the IMD issued a warning that the seas would be choppy until today evening and advised fisherman to stay out of the water during this time.

Fishermen have been warned not to enter the west-central Bay of Bengal until October 25 and the north Bay of Bengal until October 26, according to Das, who also predicted that the sea conditions would be severe to extremely rough till today evening.

It is paddy harvesting season, thus individuals who are harvesting are urged to finish quickly and store their crop securely, Das told ANI.

The system is very likely to cross Bangladesh's coast between Khepupara and Chittagong at noon on October 25 as a deep depression, the statement continued. At 5.30 p.m., the system was about 230 km off the Paradip coast in Odisha, 360 km south of Digha in West Bengal, along with 510 km south-southwest of Khepupara in Bangladesh.

The Odisha government has also told all district collectors to be prepared for any eventuality, according to PTI, and has explicitly ordered the authorities to set up the evacuation of people living in low-lying areas in case of severe rain.

By Tuesday morning, according to IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the wind speed over the Bay of Bengal would progressively rise to 80-90 kmph with gusts to 100 kmph.

Weather Report

In the last 24 hours, Odisha had roughly 15 mm of rain as a result of the system. According to the meteorological service, Monday and Tuesday might see a continuation of light to moderate rain in coastal regions.

It further said that until 8.30 am on Tuesday, "heavy rainfall (7-11 cm) may occur at one or two locations in Bhadrak, Kendrapada, and Jagatsinghpur."