IMD issues orange alert for Saurashtra & Kutch Coasts

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert for Saurashtra & Kutch Coasts in view of extremely severe Cyclonic storm Biparjoy over east-central and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea. The state government has already started evacuating residents from vulnerable locations. The government will set up shelter houses in the six districts for those residing within a 5-10 km radius of the coastline who will be shifted to safer places. Popular sea beaches have been closed. Fishermen have been asked to return from the sea and suspend fishing operations until June 15.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued heavy rainfall warnings for the Kutch, Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagadh, and Morbi districts of Gujarat. As per the IMD, the sea conditions on June 14 are likely to be phenomenal to very high over the northeast and adjoining northwest Arabian Sea. Wind speed along and off Saurashtra and Kutch coasts will reach 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph from June 13-14. Sea conditions are expected to be “rough to very rough” along and off the coast of Saurashtra and Kutch through Wednesday, and very rough to high on Thursday.

Several parts of Mumbai received rain on Sunday night, an IMD official said. Mumbai city as well as coastal parts of the state also witnessed strong winds as the intensity of cyclone Biparjoy increased bringing rain to the western parts of the state. The chaotic and anxious scenes at the Mumbai airport were caused by the long waits for flights by hundreds of travelers. Due to the weather, many aircraft were delayed or canceled, and some were compelled to abort the landing. The weather office has issued a ‘thunderstorm’ alert for some districts in coastal Maharashtra.