A low-intensity tornado hit Assam's Barpeta district on Saturday, taking residents by surprise. The residents captured this rare weather phenomenon in their smartphones. There has been no report of loss of life or property so far. A video of this tornado is going viral on social media.
"A low intensity tornado hit Changa district of Barpeta, Assam on Saturday, but it is not a cyclone," Sanjay O'Neill Shaw, deputy director general of meteorology at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati said. This comes at a time when IMD predicted that a storm is brewing in the Bay of Bengal which is expected to intensify into a cyclone on Sunday evening, gathering a wind speed of over 75 km per hour.
Read | IMD cyclone alert: Heavy rainfall warning for Odisha, Andhra and West Bengal
The IMD also said it is likely to move towards the coast of northern Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The weather system had intensified into a depression and at 1130 hours of Saturday lay 170 km west of Car Nicobar Island (Nicobar Islands) and 300 km south-south-west of Port Blair.
If the weather system intensifies into a cyclone, it will be called Asani, which in Sinhalese means wrath. Notably, this will be the first cyclonic storm of the season as a similar weather event in March had fizzled out before it could acquire the strength of a cyclone.
Odisha government's preparations to deal with emergency situation
Meanwhile, as precautionary measure, NDRF authorities have been requested to keep 10 more teams ready for any emergency. The Indian Navy and Coast Guard have been asked to remain vigilant and keep an eye on the movement of fishermen in the sea.
Odisha's Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena said that 17 teams of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), ODRAF (Odisha Disaster Rapid Response Force) and 175 teams of fire brigade have been asked to stay on alert.
(With Agency Inputs)
