Yaas completes landfall, weakens into severe cyclone

New Delhi : The landfall process of "very severe" cyclonic storm 'Yaas' in Bay of Bengal has completed and it has weakened into "severe cyclonic" storm.

'Yaas' (pronounced 'Yass'), which is crossing between Dhamra and Balasore in Odisha, weakened into a severe cyclonic storm and lay centred at 12.30 p.m. on Wednesday over north coastal Odisha near latitude 21.45 and longitude 86.8oe, about 15 km west-southwest of Balasore, said the National Weather Forecasting Centre of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

It is likely to move north-northwestwards and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm during the next six hours. The cyclone had commenced the landfall process around 9 a.m.

"Cyclone Yaas has completed the process of landfall. Rainfall will continue till tomorrow. Fishermen are advised not to venture till tomorrow morning because the sea conditions are going to be rough," said Umashankar Das, Senior Scientist, Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar.

As per the IMD's 1.30 p.m. report, the cyclone is currently intensified near the centre and bringing in windspeeds of about 130-140 kmph gusting to 155 kmph.

The cyclone moved north-northwestwards with a speed of about 13 kmph during past six hours.

As per the IMD forecast, the wind speed of the strom will decrease gradually becoming 90-100 kmph gusting to 110 kmph during next three hours and 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph during subsequent six hours.

The storm is bringing in light to moderate rainfall at most places in Odisha with heavy to very heavy rains at a few places with extremely heavy falls at isolated places over north interior part of the state during next 24 hours and heavy to very falls at isolated places over coastal regions during next 12 hours.

Tidal waves of height 1-2 meters above astronomical tide are likely to inundate low lying areas of Balasore, Bhadrak, Medinipur and South 24 Parganas districts during next 2-3 hours and decrease gradually thereafter, said the IMD.

Light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places over West Bengal's Medinipur, Jhargram, Bankura and heavy falls at isolated places over South 24 Parganas, Purulia, Nadia, Murshidabad, East Bardhaman, Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, Haldia, Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts on Wednesday.

The cyclone is also bringing in light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall and extremely heavy falls at isolated places in Jharkhand on Wednesday and Thursday.