As per IMD’s prediction, Yaas would continue to move north-northwestwards, intensify further and reach northwest Bay of Bengal near north Odisha and West Bengal coasts by Wednesday morning.
“The north Bay of Bengal where the cyclone is forming, is very warm, with the temperatures reaching up to 32 degrees Celsius (°C), 1-2°C above normal. The subsurface ocean heat content is also warm and conducive for the system to intensify into a cyclone. However, since the distance between the location of cyclogenesis and landfall is short, the cyclone won’t spend much time over the ocean. This will prevent it from intensifying to an extremely severe cyclone. In contrast, Cyclone Tauktae spent several days in the Arabian Sea, drawing the energy in the form of heat and moisture from the warm waters below. We won’t see this happening for cyclone Yaas,” said Matthew Roxy Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.
“#CycloneYaas will become the second intense tropical cyclone (severe cyclonic storm or above as per the IMD scale) to have formed to the north of 15°N latitude & west of 88°E longitude in the month of May since 1980. Previously, Cyclone Aila had formed over this region in 2009,” tweeted Akshay Deoras, an independent meteorologist and researcher at the University of Reading, England.
“Since tropical cyclones generally form further to the south over the Bay of Bengal, #CycloneYaas will become the most intense tropical cyclone that formed so close to #Odisha & #WestBengal coasts in the month of May since 1980 & made landfall over these regions,” he added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already chaired a number of meetings with state officials and other concerned authorities to take stock of the situation in the same backdrop.
