The cyclonic storm ‘Kyarr’ is likely to bring very heavy to extremely heavy rains in coastal districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra in the next 12 hours and also cause strong winds, the Met office said on Friday.
The warning was issued this afternoon by the Mumbai centre of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
A deep depression in the Arabian Sea intensified into cyclonic storm Kyarr during early hours of Friday.
Kyarr is very likely to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours and into a very severe one during the subsequent 24 hours, said an IMD official.
Subsequently, the cyclonic storm will move towards the coast of Oman, the IMD predicted.
A red alert, indicating ‘extremely heavy rainfall’, has been issued for Sindhudurg district, which would mean precipitation of 204.5 mm rainfall in 24 hours, it said.
Cyclone Kyarr would result into gale winds, reaching the speed to 85 kmph and by Saturday it would become 110 kmph, the IMD official said.
“Squally wind speed reaching 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph is likely to prevail along and off Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Raigad districts of Maharashtra as well as Goa.
“Wind speed of around 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph is likely to prevail along the remaining coastal districts of Maharashtra, north Karnataka coast as well as in the Arabian sea off the Gujarat coast during the next 24 hours,” he said.
Meanwhile, heavy rains continued to pound Goa for the third consecutive day on Friday, throwing life out of gear with no immediate respite in sight.
The IMD Goa observatory also issued a fresh warning and advised tourists to stay indoors and asked fishermen to avoid venturing into the sea in view of bad weather conditions.
Several roads, including parts of the highway connecting Canacona to Margao in South Goa, were submerged.
A road at Gudi village in South Goa, 15 km from Margao, and several stretches in Verna Industrial Estate were waterlogged due to heavy downpour.
A senior official from the Fire and Emergency Services claimed they had received over 50 calls from different parts of the state since Thursday night to clear uprooted trees from roads.
Water level of the Mandovi river has been rising, restricting the movement of people to and fro the islands of Chorao and Diwar, located across the river near Panaji, an official said.
“In view of the rising water level of the Mandovi River, we have temporarily discontinued ferry services from these islands to the mainland,” a senior official from the River and Navigation Department said.
