Very severe cyclone Biparjoy to intensify further; heatwave alert for these 7 states
The weather body also said the cyclone will further venture north-northwest wards in the next three days
The ‘very severe cyclone Biparjoy’ or ‘Biporjoy’ is expected to intensify further on Saturday as it heads towards north-northeast wards, the India Meteorological Department said.
"Very severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy at over east-central Arabian Sea near lat 16.0N & long 67.4E, likely to intensify further and move north-northeast wards," the IMD tweeted.
The weather body also said the cyclone will further venture north-northwest wards in the next three days.
The weather department added that the south Indian region is likely to experience moderately scattered to fairly widespread rainfall in the next four days. While Kerala and coastal Karnataka are likely to witness heavy rainfall till Monday, Lakshadweep will get rain showers till Sunday.
Consequently, as many as eight districts of Kerala were put on a ‘Yellow’ alert on Friday in the wake of expected heavy rainfall. These districts include Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Kozhikode, and Kannur.
The monsoon arrived in the south Indian state on Thursday, seven days behind the schedule, IMD said. The announcement by the weather body came even as the scientists warned that the onset of the weather system is likely to remain weak, with a slow progress over the peninsula due to the cyclone Biparjoy.
IMD director general M Mohapatra said that all criteria for declaring the onset have been met; however noted that the rainfall is expected to pick up only after June 15.
Issuing a weather outlook till the middle of the next week, the weather office said other than south India and Northeast will also face heavy rainfall till Wednesday. The sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim will continue to witness isolated heavy rainfall in parts on Friday, which is expected to intensify into very heavy rainfall over the next two days.
The weather forecast said that some pockets of Bihar will continue to experience heatwave conditions till Tuesday. Similar conditions will follow in the Gangetic West Bengal over the same period while Odisha and Jharkhand will continue to reel under heatwave conditions till Monday.
Uttar Pradesh will encounter heatwave conditions till Sunday, meanwhile, parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh may see similar weather conditions prevailing till Saturday.
