A fresh cyclonic storm has formed over the southwest Bay of Bengal, prompting weather alerts across Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and parts of south Andhra Pradesh. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday confirmed that the system, now named Cyclone ‘Ditwah’, is expected to approach the coastline by November 30.
The development comes just as another weather system, Cyclone ‘Senyar’, which intensified in the Strait of Malacca, moved away from Indian territory.
Cyclone Ditwah Strengthens Over Bay
In its latest update, the IMD said Cyclone Ditwah was positioned near Pottuvil in Sri Lanka, around 700 km south-southeast of Chennai, and continues to track north-northwest (NNW).
The storm was first detected near 6.9°N and 81.9°E and lay about 90 km south-southeast of Batticaloa when IMD issued its alert. The name ‘Ditwah’ was proposed by Yemen as part of the official naming system for North Indian Ocean cyclones.
As the storm advances, several Tamil Nadu districts, including Chennai, Nagapattinam, Thiruvallur and Thanjavur, have been placed under yellow and orange alerts from November 27 to 29.
Senyar: A ‘Rare’ Cyclone in the Strait of Malacca
While Ditwah intensifies, the IMD noted that Cyclone Senyar, the storm that had originated near the Strait of Malacca, has begun weakening and is likely to reduce to a depression soon. At one stage, Senyar was located 850 km southeast of Car Nicobar, before shifting away from India’s sphere of influence.
Malaysia’s Met Department confirmed that Senyar was moving toward Northern Sumatra and may bring heavy rain, strong winds and rough sea conditions to parts of Malaysia. Weather experts have called Senyar a historic event, the first recorded cyclonic storm of its intensity in the Strait of Malacca.
“The last one, a tropical depression, occurred in 2017 and affected Penang. But for a system to reach tropical storm intensity… this is a first,” MetMalaysia director-general Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip said.
A tropical storm alert remains in place, with sustained winds of 83 kph reported. Online weather watchers described it as the “rarest of rare” meteorological occurrences, with some noting it may become the first-ever tropical cyclone to make landfall on Malaysia’s western coast.