Cyclonic Storm, VARDAH over southeast Bay of Bengal

The cyclonic storm, VARDAH over southeast Bay of Bengal moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 10 kmph during past 06 hrs, slightly intensified further and lay centred at 0530 hrs IST of today, the 9th December, 2016 over southeast Bay of Bengal near Latitude 12.1ºN and Longitude 90.4ºE, about 990 km southeast of Visakhapatnam, 1090 km east-southeast of Machilipatnam and 250 km west-northwest of Port Blair. The system is very likely to intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm during next 12 hours. It is very likely to move initially northwestwards, then west-northwestwards and cross Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Kakinada around afternoon/evening of 12th December 2016. However, there is possibility of slight weakening of the system before landfall.