Cyclone Sitrang Intensifies, Red & Yellow Alerts Issued for North-east States

The weather office said that Cyclone Sitrang will intensify into a severe cyclonic storm today with the wind speed of up to 90 to 100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph.

IMD said that on Sunday evening, the cyclone was 580 kilometre south of Sagar Island in West Bengal & 740 kilometre south-southwest of Barisal in Bangladesh.

Cyclone Sitrang Live Updates

Deputy director-general of the Regional Met Centre in Kolkata, Sanjib Bandopadhyay said that the cyclone sitrang will mainly hit the Sunderbans spread over West Bengal and Bangladesh as tidal waves are expected to reach a height of 6 metres owing to the twin effect of the weather system & new moon.

He said after changing the direction to northeastwards from northwest-bound, the system will reach the north Bay of Bengal before making landfall between Tinkona island & Sandwip close to Barisal in Bangladesh on Tuesday.

He also said that the system will cause heavy to very heavy rainfall in the coastal districts of South 24 Parganas & North 24 Parganas. East and West Midnapore will witness heavy showers today.

Met officials said that rainfall will continue in southern West Bengal districts till Wednesday morning.

The officials said Kolkata, Howrah & Hooghly will also receive moderate showers on Monday as well as Tuesday. Meanwhile, heavy rainfall will take place in North and South 24 Parganas & Nadia districts on Tuesday.

The administration has deployed the civil security forces at the riverbanks of South 24 Parganas. It is making all necessary arrangements to move people along the riverbanks to safer places.

The weather office has also predicted heavy rainfall along with strong winds in the north-east region.

According to IMD, Tripura is likely to be the worst-affected, with rainfall up to 200 mm in 24 hours.

A "red alert" has been issued for Tripura, Mizoram, Assam, Manipur & Nagaland, and an "orange alert" has been raised for Arunachal Pradesh.