The weakening of the erstwhile typhoon ‘Khanun’ in the South China Sea and its landfall over the Vietnam coast should allow the low-pressure area over the downstream Bay of Bengal to intensify as a depression. On Monday, the India Met Department extended the watch for the intensification for the next 24 hours, as the ‘low’ waited out over the Central Bay of Bengal.
The prospective depression will intensify further and move in a north-west direction, dragging it towards the North Andhra Pradesh-South Odisha coasts for a landfall on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, the withdrawal of the monsoon from North-West, East and Central India is gaining momentum, even as the Bay prepares to host the storm in the making.
What this means is that the withdrawing South-West monsoon would yield space to the ensuing North-East monsoon, the arrival of which is likely to be delayed beyond the normal October 15-20 window.
A remnant of typhoon ‘Khanun’ is widely forecast to set up another ‘low’ off the Andhra Pradesh coast by October 22. This could ultimately trigger the North-East monsoon rains over the South Peninsula two days later, say global forecasts.