The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a ‘red alert’ for coastal Karnataka in response to the rare Cyclone Asna threat, forecasting very heavy rain for Gujarat on Saturday, August 31.
Cyclone Asna moved past Gujarat on Friday evening without making any serious impact on the prone regions. It was formed over the coast of Kutch in Gujarat earlier during the day, moved into the Arabian Sea and headed towards Oman without causing significant damage in the coastal state.
As the storm grew stronger, Cyclone Asna was suggested by Pakistan. Only three of these storms have developed over the Arabian Sea in August between 1891 and 2023; the others occurred in 1944, 1976, and 1964, according to English Jagran.
The storm from 1976 started in Odisha, traveled into the Arabian Sea from the west-northwest, looped, and finally weakened close to Oman’s coast. In a similar vein, the storm in 1944 became stronger until it reached the Arabian Sea and then began to weaken. According to the study, a small storm formed off the coast of South Gujarat in 1964 but weakened close to the shore.
Cyclone Asna, which Pakistan has named, is the first cyclonic storm to develop in the Arabian Sea in August since 1976. The storm is now advancing west-northwest, moving away from the Indian coast.
In the past 6 hours, the deep depression over the Kachchh coast, parts of Pakistan, and the northeast Arabian Sea has been moving westward at 6 kilometres per hour. It has intensified into Cyclone Asna and was located around 11:30 AM at the same spot, approximately 190 kilometres west-northwest of Bhuj, Gujarat, according to the IMD.
Wind speeds in a deep depression vary from 52 to 61 kmph, whereas cyclones have wind speeds between 63 and 87 kmph.
In Gujarat, recent rainfall has caused the loss of 26 lives over the past four days. Over 18,000 individuals have been evacuated, and around 1,200 people have been rescued from areas severely impacted by flooding.
Although rainfall decreased across most of Gujarat by Friday morning, officials reported significant waterlogging in several towns and villages due to overflowing rivers.
The State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) noted that between 6 am and 2 pm, only four locations in the state received 15 mm to 26 mm of rain, while other areas experienced either dry conditions or light showers.
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