Nilofar to hit western Rajasthan by evening: MeT

JAIPUR: Cyclonic storm Nilofar is most likely to hit western regions of Rajasthan by this evening causing moderate to heavy rains, a MeT official said.

Rains are likely to occur in Jalore, Barmer, and Jaisalmer districts due to Nilofar's residual effect, state MeT Director B N Vishnoi said, adding, rainy weather would probably also cover Jodhpur and Pali districts by night.

The cyclone would have a mild affect in Rajasthan's border districts of Barmer, Jalore, and Jodhpur, he said.

Jaipur and surrounding areas was receiving high moisture with development of clouds as residual movement and there might be rains in northern region, he said.

Cyclone's eye was still to touch Gujarat's Kutch area and its front area would be spreading in western region of Rajasthan, he said.

"It is not clear whether high speed wind would be blowing across western Rajasthan, as present speed of cyclone was around 70-80 km per hour. High wind requires more than 80 km per hour of speed to affect the weather and surroundings," he said.

The BSF has already sounded alert along the border line of Jaisalmer-Srigangangar-Barmer-Bikaner in view of Nilofar cyclone, a senior BSF official said.

"In view of the cyclone effect, BSF has cautioned its troops to be more vigilant as any kind of dust storm could raise poor visibility on the border. Hence to keep constant vigilance, jawans would be given sun glasses to protect themselves from dust storm or strong winds during Nilofar's entry, if any," he said.

BSF jawans would also be made available to meet any exigency in public domain in case the cyclone gets aggressive, he said.

District administrations of border areas have alerted their disaster management teams to be alert with all gadgets to meet any challenge, an official said.