By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: A powerful cyclone, Asna, intensified over the northeast Arabian Sea, bearing down on coastal areas with heavy rains and strong winds expected to hit the southern province of Sindh by early Saturday, the meteorological office said.
“A deep depression (a very strong low-pressure area) over India’s Rann of Kutch has moved westward during the last six hours and now lies around 170 kilometres east/southeast of Karachi,” the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in an alert issued at 5:30 pm local time.
The system is likely to “keep moving initially west/northwestwards” and under its influence, widespread rain/wind-thunderstorms with scattered heavy/very heavy and isolated extremely heavy falls are likely in Karachi division, Tharparker, Badin, Thatta, Sajawal, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Jamshoro, Dadu and Shaheed Benazirabad districts till Saturday.
“Heavy rains may create water logging/rain inundation in low-lying areas of Sindh-Makran coast.”
The Met office said sea conditions were likely to remain rough/very rough with squally winds of 50-60km/hour gusting at 70km/hour.
“This is the first time in 60 years, since 1964, that such a cyclone has formed,” Sahibzada Khan, director general, PMD told a news conference. “Currently, it is located 200 kilometres south of Karachi and may intensify into a tropical storm within the next six hours.”
Chief Meteorologist Dr Sardar Sarfaraz described the formation of a cyclone in the monsoon season as a “rare phenomenon”, with an 80 percent chance of intensification into a tropical storm.
“There is an 80 per cent chance for a cyclonic storm’s formation when the deep depression would move from land to the sea and get favourable conditions. It would be a rare event as cyclones are uncommon in the monsoon season,” Sarfaraz said.
“It start decaying within a few hours. This happens due to the change in the sea surface temperature and wind’s intensity and direction.”
It would be the first cyclone in the Arabian Sea since 1976.
The PMD warned of rough sea conditions, with squally winds of 50-60 km/hour gusting to 70 km/hour, and advised fishermen in Sindh not to venture into the open sea until August 31, and those in Balochistan until September 1.
The PMD’s cyclone warning center in Karachi is closely monitoring the system and will continue to issue updates accordingly.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
