A cyclone will hit the coasts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on late Thursday night, the India Meteorological Department said. A deep depression is moving at a speed of about 12 kmph and is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm in the next 12 hours, the cyclone warning division of IMD said in the evening on Thursday.


The depression, which was initially over west-central Bay of Bengal and adjoining areas, moved westward and intensified into a deep depression, IMD said in a bulletin, adding that the depression lay centred at about 300 km east-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha.


"It (the depression) is very likely to move west-northwestwards. It will cross south Odisha north Andhra Pradesh coasts between Kalingapatnam and Puri (Odisha) close to Gopalpur around midnight as a cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 60 kmph to 70 kmph, gusting to 80 kmph," Mritunjay Mohapatra, Additional Director General of the IMD, said.


The CWD's advisory said the sea will be very rough over central and north Bay of Bengal and off the Odisha, West Bengal and north Andhra Pradesh coasts. There will also be a storm surge of about 0.5 metres above astronomical tides and it is likely to inundate low lying areas of districts of Vizianagaram, Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesha and Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts in Odisha at the time of landfall. -- PTI


Representational image.