Due to the impending Cyclone Sitrang, a red alert was issued for Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura on Monday.The IMD predicted that it would likely become a strong cyclonic storm. The Hailakandi, Karimganj, Cachar, Dima Hasao, East and West Karbi Anglong, Morigaon, Nagaon, Kamrup Metro, Kamrup, Goalpara, Golaghat, Jorhat, and Sibsagar districts are all expected to have thunderstorms with lightning until October 26.
According to Sanjay O’Neill Shaw, Scientist-F at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati, “On Monday, Guwahati will experience cloudy skies, moderate rain, and high winds with gusts of up to 30 km/h. The following day is anticipated to see further heavy rain and gloomy skies. In Guwahati city, the temperature has dipped to 23.3 degrees Celsius.
On Monday, as Sitrang continued to move closer to Sagar island on its route to hotter land, Kolkatans awoke to a gloomy sky punctuated by brief periods of light rain. By the time the system began to move away from Kolkata in the afternoon, according to the Met Office, the worst had passed for Kolkata. However, due to its effect, the city is anticipated to have intermittent light showers and cloud cover.
Sitrang, which caused alarm, barely spared Kolkata with light rain and medium wind blowing between 30 and 40 kmph. The city was also expected to experience mild to moderate rain and winds gusting to 50 kmph from the Indian Meteorological Department.
Even though we predict light rain until early Tuesday morning, the worst is past for Kolkata. However, the weather should be favourable and the rain should have stopped before early working hours. Since Kolkata was never directly in the path of the cyclone, light to moderate rain was predicted, according to GK Das, director of weather at the Regional Meteorological Center in Kolkata.
Even though Sitrang mainly spared the city from any significant disruption, ferry services between Kolkata and Howrah were suspended out of caution. According to sources, this means of transportation will be suspended even on Tuesday.
In order to prevent electrocution, many important thoroughfares had their street lights turned out for a short period of time. Later, however, they were turned on because neither the volume of rain nor the wind speed posed a threat of flooding.
By Sunday evening, a deep depression over the west-central and adjacent east-central Bay of Bengal had strengthened into cyclonic storm Sitrang. Even though the system’s initial motion was between 10 and 15 kmph, by Monday AM it had increased pace and was travelling at 31 kmph.
On Monday afternoon, Sitrang was about 300 km from Sagar island in the Suderbans region when it passed by Kolkata. After that, it began to move away from the city. IMD forecasts that the system will keep moving in a north-northeasterly direction and intensify even more into a severe cyclonic storm.
Moving in the same path, it is predicted to reach landfall on Monday night between Tinkona Island and Sandwip, close to Barisal, in Bangladesh.”Tuesday AM was the time predicted for its landing earlier. However, because it is moving more quickly, the start of the rain has been delayed by around six to seven hours. The impact of a northwestern trough has increased the cyclonic storm’s speed, Das continued.
According to the country’s National Meteorological Service, the cyclone would very likely strike the Bangladeshi coast early in the morning between Tinkona island and Sandwip, close to Barisal.
