The low-pressure area over the North Andaman Sea has moved in a North-North-East direction and reached the Gulf of Mottama, an update by the Myanmar Met Office said this morning. The Gulf of Mottama (Martaban) is an arm of the Andaman Sea in the southern part of Myanmar. It is named after the port city of Mottama (Martaban).

NO TRACTION

The Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology expected the 'low' to move inland by tonight, after having effectively withdrawn the outlook for its intensfication as a depression. Apparently, the 'low' did not get the expected traction since it was 'locked in' between the land features of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and South Myanmar.

The skies continue to be cloudy over the Andaman Sea and adjoining South Bay of Bengal, while being partly cloudy elsewhere over the larger Bay of Bengal. The Myanmar Met Office has forecast widespread rain or thundershowers in Bago, Yangon, Ayeyarwady and Taninthayi Regions, Shan, Kayah, Kayin and Mon states.

THUNDER SQUALLS

Rain will be fairly widespread in Naypyitaw, Upper Sagaing region, Kachin and Chin States and scattered in Lower Sagaing and Mandalay regions. They will be isolated in the remaining regions and states of the country, with isolated heavy falls in Bago and Yangon regions, Kayin and Mon states, assessed at a probability of 80 per cent. It has warned of occasional squalls with rough seas over the deltaic and Gulf of Mottama regions and off and along the Mon-Taninthayi coasts.

Back home, the India Met Department (IMD) maintained its prediction for violent weather for East India and the North-Eastern states for two more days. This is in view of strong convergence of opposing winds, combining with moisture carried in by winds blowing in from the seas triggering severe thunder squalls and heavy rain.

HEAT WAVE

Over North-West India, an incoming western disturbance could spark scattered to widespread precipitation over the hills and isolated to scattered rain and thunder squalls in the plains. Western disturbances are potential weather-makers during this time of the year, with their entrails 'lighting up' activity over an already volatile East and North-East India.

The western disturbance moves periodically from West to East and would be active right into the onset of the monsoon. The current disturbance would be active over the next couple of days. In contrast, heat wave conditions are forecast to prevail over parts of West Rajasthan and Vidarbha for the next four to five days, the IMD said.

One or two pockets of the northern parts of Madhya Maharashtra and Marathawada too may slip under heat wave conditions during the next couple of days.

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