Pune: A weather system over Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by Monday morning and move towards the Andhra Pradesh coast over the following days, but its impact on Maharashtra is expected to be limited, GP Sharma, president of meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather, said on Saturday.India Meteorological Department (IMD), in its latest update, said a well-marked low-pressure area over the east-central and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal was likely to intensify into a depression on Saturday, a deep depression on Sunday and a cyclonic storm over the west-central Bay of Bengal by Monday morning.The system is expected to move west-northwestwards and reach the west-central Bay of Bengal near the Andhra Pradesh coast around the morning of Oct 28, IMD said.Sharma said it was too early to pinpoint the system’s exact track and assess its impact, as this would depend on its movement and intensity. He, however, said Maharashtra was unlikely to receive significant rainfall from the system, with any impact likely to be restricted to the state’s peripheral areas. “Maharashtra will, if at all, have very limited impact. That too, the peripheral areas, perhaps parts of Vidarbha adjoining Chhattisgarh and Telangana,” Sharma said.He said the system was unlikely to bring widespread rainfall across Maharashtra or provide relief from the prolonged dry spell the state has experienced. “There is no recovery in terms of rainfall for Maharashtra, which has seen a very long dry spell,” he said, adding that the eventual impact would depend on the cyclone’s track and point of landfall.According to Sharma, the system is likely to make landfall along the Andhra Pradesh coast, after which its influence could extend into Telangana, Chhattisgarh and parts of adjoining Vidarbha. “The system would weaken after moving inland,” he added.IMD has so far not forecast rainfall over Maharashtra in connection with the developing system.
