IMD issues 'orange alert' for Gujarat's coasts as cyclone Biparjoy intensifies

New Delhi, June 12: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for Gujarat's Saurashtra and Kutch coasts as cyclone Biparjoy has intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm and is expected to impact the state and Pakistan in the coming days.

"Cyclone Alert for Saurashtra & Kutch Coast: Orange Message. ESCS BIPARJOY at 0530IST of today over Aeast central & adjoining NE Arabian Sea near lat 19.2N & long 67.7E, about 380km SSW of Devbhumi Dwarka. To cross near Jakhau Port, Gujarat by noon of June 15," the Department tweeted early Monday morning.

According to IMD officials, the cyclone is very likely to move nearly northward till Wednesday morning, then move north-northeastwards and cross Saurashtra and Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by Thursday noon as a very severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph.

The IMD further predicted that that there will be light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagarh and Morbi districts of Saurashtra and Kutch on Wednesday.

"The intensity of rainfall would increase with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy falls at isolated places very likely over Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar and heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places over Porbandar, Rajkot, Morbi and Junagarh districts of Gujarat on Thursday," said an IMD official.

"Isolated heavy rainfall is very likely over remaining districts of Saurashtra and north Gujarat region on Thursday, while light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over north Gujarat and adjoining south Rajasthan on Friday."

On Sunday, the IMD had also predicted that the heatwave is likely to persist in isolated pockets over Bihar, Jharkhand and Coastal Andhra Pradesh during the next five days.

Further, heatwave conditions are also expected to prevail over south Haryana-Delhi, south Uttar Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha from Sunday to Tuesday and over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana on Monday.