Cyclone Arnab Shifts Heavy Rainfall Away From South Peninsula Toward Eastern and Central India

Cyclone Arnab has intensified over the Bay of Bengal and is heading toward the Andhra Pradesh coast, altering weather patterns and drawing rain clouds away from Tamil Nadu and the South Peninsula. The system is expected to bring heavy rainfall across several eastern and central states following its landfall.

NEW DELHI: Cyclone Arnab has formed over the west-central and adjoining east-central Bay of Bengal, drawing rain clouds away from most of Tamil Nadu and the South Peninsula. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the system intensified from a depression into a cyclone over the weekend and is moving at a speed of 15 km/hr.

The IMD reported that the storm was located about 650 km east-south-east of Visakhapatnam, 730 km east-south-east of Kakinada, 830 km east of Machilipatnam, and 910 km east of Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh. The system is forecast to strengthen into a severe cyclone over the west-central Bay and reach very severe storm status before crossing the Andhra Pradesh-Yanam coast between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam by Wednesday morning. Maximum sustained winds are projected to reach 115-125 km/hr, gusting up to 140 km/hr.

The anticipated landfall will shift weather conditions across the country. While the heavy-rain regime that previously affected Tamil Nadu and parts of the South Peninsula is subsiding, Arnab's northward track will bring extremely heavy to very heavy rainfall across Odisha, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Vidarbha, east Madhya Pradesh, and east Uttar Pradesh over a three-to-four-day period starting Wednesday.

Even after making landfall, the system is expected to retain enough structure to persist as a well-marked low-pressure area until Friday, reaching northern Chhattisgarh and adjoining east Madhya Pradesh. This extended inland movement is supported by favorable conditions, including sea-surface temperatures of around 29-30°C along its path, which provide the thermal energy required for intensification.

The rapid development of Cyclone Arnab mirrors other recent tropical weather systems globally, such as super typhoon Champi in the western Pacific and Hurricane Otis in the eastern Pacific, both of which also benefited from high ocean heat content and favorable atmospheric conditions during their respective cycles.

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