Cyclone Madi

India Met Department has issued an alert for cyclone formation in southwest Bay of Bengal, the fourth in the series during the ongoing North-East monsoon.
The cyclone alert came in the wake of a prevailing low-pressure area intensifying into a depression on Friday afternoon.
The Met said that the depression was located to 530 km south-east of Chennai and 350 km north-east of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka).
It would intensify into a deep depression (to ‘numbered’ cyclone 06B) by Saturday and subsequently into a ‘named’ (Madi) cyclonic storm.
Cyclone Madi will travel north along the Tamil Nadu coast for two days and turn away to enter open Bay of Bengal waters.
This will be masterminded by a western disturbance - already parked over Jammu and Kashmir - and the band of associated winds blowing in from northwest to east-northeast.
Global models project that ‘Madi’ too could become a very severe cyclonic storm by the time it wades into the open Bay.
It is seen parked equidistant from West Bengal, Bangladesh and Myanmar coasts according to projections available until December 12. But it may weaken before hitting the Myanmar coast within the few days that follow, the US National Centres for Environmental Predictions suggested.
On Friday, an update from the Nasa suggested that the brewing system may have already been appropriated by the northwesterly winds. It is now moving north-northeast.
In this manner, the Tamil Nadu coast will be spared of a direct threat of getting hit by the system although fishermen are being warned against venturing out into deep sea.
The rain-deficit State will mostly be left in the lurch this time too since only a few places will be able to benefit from the system according to forecast valid for Saturday.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands is projected to bear the brunt of the rain fury as winds from the cyclone could wallop the islands during the next couple of days.