Eye of cyclone Murasu crosses Andhra coast

Amaravati: The eye of the severe cyclonic storm Murasu, which has battered several parts of Andhra Pradesh with torrential rains, has crossed the coast at 5.30 am on Tuesday, and the rear end of the weather system continues to make landfall, a Met Department official.

Murasu formed over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh moved north to northwestwards with a speed of 8 kmph in the past six hours and lay centred over the same region at 8.30 am, the official told PTI.

According to the Visakhapatnam-based Cyclone Warning Centre (CWC) and Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the weather system was located 30 km north to northeast of Ongole, 40 km southwest of Bapatla, 90 km north to northeast of Kavali, 100 km south to southwest of Vijayawada and 120 km west to southwest of Machilipatnam.


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Based on the CWC's observations at 8.30 am, the severe cyclonic storm was likely to move north to northwestwards and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm by Tuesday noon, accompanied by wind speeds reaching up to 90 kmph and gusting up to 100 kmph.

Later, it is expected to subside into a deep depression by Tuesday midnight with wind speeds reaching up to 75 kmph.

The Met Department forecast that heavy spells of rainfall will continue over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh during the next 12 hours.

Between 8.30 am on Monday and the same time on Tuesday, Bapatla recorded a rainfall of 222.4 mm, followed by Narasapur (198.6 mm), Ongole (120.2 mm), Machilipatnam (83.9 mm), Bandrawela (75 mm) and Puducherry (65.4 mm).