Cyclone Sitrang Live Updates: Low-pressure area over north Andaman sea intensifies into depression

IMD Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra has said while there is no possibility of the storm making landfall in Odisha, the state is expected to witness heavy to very heavy rainfall. The Odisha government has alerted seven coastal districts — Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Balasore — asking them to take precautionary measures.

Deputy director-general of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Kolkata Sanjib Bandopadhyay told reporters that isolated places in North-24 Parganas and South-24 Parganas districts would get heavy to very heavy rainfall on October 24.

This storm, which is expected to turn into a cyclone in the “severe” category is to be called as ‘Sitrang’ (read as Si-trang), a name suggested by Thailand. Sitrang will be the second cyclonic storm this year after Cyclone Asani that had formed in the Bay of Bengal in early May. (Here’s how cyclones are named)

The Met Office has warned fishermen not to venture into the deep-sea area of the central Bay of Bengal from Saturday and along and off Odisha and West Bengal coasts between October 23 and 26. Both states are likely to experience widespread rainfall due to the weather system.

Cyclones that form in every ocean basin across the world are named by the regional specialised meteorological centres (RSMCs) and Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs). There are six RSMCs in the world, including the India Meteorological Department (IMD), and five TCWCs.

As an RSMC, the IMD names the cyclones developing over the north Indian Ocean, including the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, after following a standard procedure. The IMD is also mandated to issue advisories to 12 other countries in the region on the development of cyclones and storms. Here are the names of cyclones, past and future