Monsoon 2020: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday announced that the southwest monsoon is likely to advance over the islands of Andaman and Nicobar by May 16, after they observed the formation of a low-pressure area over southeast Bay of Bengal and south Andaman Sea. The IMD statement added that a depression is likely to form over south Bay of Bengal on May 15 and intensify into a cyclonic storm on the evening of May 16.
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The statement added that this would lead to ideal conditions for the southwest monsoon to hit Andaman and Nicobar Islands around May 16. The press release also said that the depression would move towards northwest on May 17 and then curve towards north-northeast.
Issuing several warnings in relation to this development, IMD said that Andaman and Nicobar would highly likely experience light to moderate rainfall on May 15 and 16, and added that Andaman is also likely to experience heavy rainfall on these two days.
It also issued a wind warning, saying that wind with speed up to 65 km per hour (kmph) would likely prevail over south and central Bay of Bengal on May 15, while this speed is expected to increase to 75 kmph on May 16 over the same region. Moreover, the IMD forecast stated that winds with speed up to 85 kmph were likely to prevail over southwest and west-central Bay of Bengal from the evening of May 16.
On the two days, the central and south Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea would be rough to very rough, and this would escalate to very rough to highly rough sea conditions over southwest and west-central Bay of Bengal from May 16 evening. The IMD advised fishermen to not venture out into south and central Bay of Bengal starting May 15, while those who are already on sea have been advised to return to the coast by Thursday itself.
The IMD added that continuous surveillance of the situation is ongoing and the concerned state governments are being apprised of the scenario at regular intervals.