Pacific super typhoon may not allow Bay 'low' to grow

A low-pressure area off south-east Myanmar coast is expected to cross over into Andaman Sea and intensify a round to being a "well-marked low" by Saturday.

Available forecasts favour the system making a slow and laborious trek across the Bay of Bengal for almost the whole of next week.

MASSIVE TYPHOON

It may not be able to rustle up strength given the shadow of massive super typhoon Haiyan that lashed the Philippines on Friday.

Assessed at class-topping category 5 in terms of strength and intensity, the monster storm will slow down only a notch on rendezvous with the Philippine coast.

Next, Haiyan will enter South China Sea and roar its way for a likely second landfall over Vietnam/Thailand late on Sunday/early Monday.

By then, its sheer strength and pull power will have slowed the Bay of Bengal "low" to a meander somewhere to south-west of the basin off Tamil Nadu.

ODD FORECAST

Storm tracker models do not give much allowance to the prospect of any significant strengthening of the "low" although some suggest it could become a minimal storm.

It may clamber up along the Tamil Nadu coast by the end of next week and bring some rain over entire south.

Initial assessments suggest Tamil Nadu and Kerala, apart from adjoining Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, may receive rain or thundershowers from the system.

Meanwhile, fog enveloped isolated pockets of Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Tripura and interior Odisha overnight on Friday.

MERCURY FALLS

For the first time this season, minimum (night) temperatures fell below 10 degrees Celsius over many parts of western Himalayan region.

A low-pressure western disturbance has parked itself over north Pakistan and adjoining Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.

It has induced the formation of a rain and fog-friendly circulation over southeast Rajasthan and adjoining west Madhya Pradesh.

An India Met Department outlook for Saturday said that rain or thundershowers would break out over Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, east Rajasthan and west Madhya Pradesh.

Fog or shallow fog may get triggered over Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and north Rajasthan in the morning hours of both Saturday and Sunday.

vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/11/09/pacific-super-typhoon-may-not-allow-bay-low-to-grow/