Cyclone Midhili that was anticipated to hit land in the early morning hours on Saturday, started crossing Bangladesh coasts in the afternoon making landfall earlier than expected. According to weathermen, Kolkata is expected to have a cloudy sky till tomorrow. The weather is tipped to improve and become dry from Sunday. At 2.30pm, the system was over northeast and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal, close to Bangladesh coast, about 30km south-southwest of Khepupara and 250km southwest of Chittagong in Bangladesh.
The system was anticipated to cross Bangladesh coasts from 1am to 2am on Saturday. However, the cyclonic storm Midhili crossed Bangladesh coast close to Khepupara with wind speed of 65-75 kmph, gusting to 85 kilometres per hour about 7-8 hours earlier than the forecast. According to the weather office, the landfall process took around three hours to get over. As informed by the Regional Meteorological Centre in Kolkata, Midhili hit land earlier than expected because it attained faster wind speed before the landfall process.
As for the impact over the city, Kolkata, that was anticipated to get light to moderate rainfall today, was spared of the showers and experienced winds of higher speed instead. As informed by the director, India Meteorological Department, Kolkata, GK Das, the city experienced winds of around 48 kmph with an average speed of 30-40kmph this morning before the landfall process. The coastal areas of the state, however, witnessed squally wind speed, reaching 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph continuing overnight while the sea condition was rough.
The system proved to be the weakest of the three cyclones generated over the north Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal combined, according to weather experts. The recent cyclones, according to weather experts, including ‘Tej’ in the Arabian Sea and ‘Hamoon,’ were stronger. As elaborated by the weather department officials, Midhili was a marginal cyclone that had a speed of around 55-60kmph at the time of hitting the land