Tamil Nadu’s southern part and neighboring state Kerala are on high alert, as the cyclone Burevi inches closer to the southern shores. The cyclone, however, has weakened and turned into a deep depression.
The deep depression will cross Ramanathapuram and its adjoining Tuticorin district in the next 3 hours. The wind speed is likely to be 50-60 kmph, as per the weather office. As a precautionary measure, flight operations have been shut in 3 airports in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Earlier, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted that the cyclone Burevi, crossing the Sri Lanka coast on Wednesday night, would hit the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu in the form of a cyclonic storm.
Now, as per IMD’s latest update – “Deep depression over Gulf of Munnar at 0530 IST today is close to Ramanathapuram District coast remained practically stationary, about 40 km southwest of Ramanathapuram, 70 km west-southwest of Pamban. The associated wind speed is about 55-65 gusts to 75 kmph”.
Contextually, ‘deep depression’ is a stage of de-intensification of a cyclonic storm. The IMD report further stated, that “the deep depression is very likely to further weaken into a depression (with a wind speed of 40-50 kmph, gusting up to 60 kmph) in 24 hours”.