The deep depression over the Southeast Bay of Bengal has intensified into a cyclonic storm named Murasu, and the Department of Meteorology has issued a red warning for strong winds and rough seas covering a large block of ocean east of Sri Lanka.
The warning was issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre at 3.00 p.m. on Sunday and is valid for the next 24 hours, Hiru News reported. Naval personnel and fishing communities have been told not to venture into sea areas bounded by 10°N–15°N and 80°E–90°E until further notice.
Where the storm is and where it is going
Cyclone Murasu was centred near latitude 12.1°N and longitude 85.3°E at around 11.30 a.m. on 1 November, the Daily Mirror reported.
The system is expected to move west-northwestwards and strengthen into a severe cyclonic storm over the West-Central Bay of Bengal by Monday morning. It is then likely to turn northwestwards and cross the Andhra Pradesh coast in India as a severe cyclonic storm between midnight on 2 November and the early hours of 3 November.
Wind speeds in the warning area may reach 70–80 kmph at times, with heavy thundershowers. Sea conditions along the coastal belt from Mannar to Trincomalee via Kankesanthurai are also expected to become very rough. Hiru reports the warning covers both multi-day boats operating in the deep Bay of Bengal and the deep-sea areas off that northern coastline.
Boats already working in the affected waters have been told to move to safer locations without delay.
This is the second named storm in nine days
Murasu is the system our earlier reporting described as a developing depression expected to reach severe cyclonic storm strength by 2 November. It now has a name and a red warning attached to it.
It is not Cyclone Arnab, which made landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast in late October. The Disaster Management Centre’s running count of damage from Arnab and the unsettled weather around it stands at six dead and 21,356 affected across 19 districts. Those totals describe damage already done and do not include anything from Murasu.
As with Arnab, the forecast track takes Murasu towards the Indian coast rather than across Sri Lanka. The hazard to the island on this forecast is to shipping and fishing in the warning box and to the seas off the north and east, not a landfall.
Not reported
Neither filing gives an expected wave height for the warning area, states how many Sri Lankan multi-day boats are currently working inside the box, or says whether any have been ordered back to port. Neither gives a land-area rainfall forecast tied to Murasu specifically, and neither says when the next bulletin is due.
