Very severe cyclonic storm Arnab is crossing the Andhra Pradesh coast, and the landfall process will continue for the next three hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday. Maximum sustained winds of 125-135 kmph, gusting to 150 kmph, are expected during this period. The update came in Special Bulletin-16, issued by the IMD's Bhubaneswar centre. It carries a red message, the highest level of alert in the department's colour-coded warning system.
At 2:30 a.m. IST, the system lay over the west-central Bay of Bengal, close to the Andhra Pradesh coast, near 16.4°N and 82.0°E. That put it about 30 km east of Narsapur in Andhra Pradesh and 45 km south-southwest of Yanam, a Puducherry enclave on the Andhra coast. NDTV reported.
It was also 70 km south-southwest of Kakinada, 90 km east-northeast of Machilipatnam and 170 km east-northeast of Bapatla.
The cyclone had moved slowly northwestwards at just 3 kmph over the preceding three hours. The IMD said the centre is now very close to the coastline.
