A deep depression has formed over the southeast Arabian Sea as of 11:30 am on Tuesday morning. It will move nearly northwards and intensify into a cyclonic storm in the next six hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Ports in Gujarat have been asked to hoist a warning signal and fishermen have been told not to venture into the deep sea due to the weather phenomenon, the IMD announced.

The weather agency has told that signal "Distant Cautionary-1 (DC-1)" be hoisted at all the ports of North and South Gujarat coasts. According to the IMD portal, DC-I is hoisted at a port when the (weather) system out at sea is a depression or a deep depression and while the local weather at the port itself is not likely to be affected immediately, ships leaving the port may run into danger during their voyage.

The deep depression developed from a depression that began as a low-pressure area at around 5:30 pm on Monday and has intensified since then. The IMD on June 5 had predicted that a low-pressure area would form in the Arabian Sea, a little away from the Kerala coastal line by June 6 and would develop into a depression within 48 hours.

The department has not predicted that the cyclonic storm, which is likely to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm, will make landfall on the Gujarat coast as of now.

In meteorology, a low-pressure area is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. They are commonly associated with cloudy, windy weather accompanied by possible rain or storms.

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The current deep depression lies about 930 km west-southwest of Goa, 1,060 km southwest of Mumbai, 1,150 south-southwest of Porbandar and 1,450 south of Karachi.

Sunil Kamble, the IMD head for Mumbai, told CNBC-TV18 that the low-pressure area would be formed Tuesday and would take two days to convert into a depression. However, until then, no significant rainfall activity is expected.

"There is no rainfall warning for next 48-72 hours as the low-pressure area is being formed in the sea," Kamble said on Monday afternoon.

The development of the low-pressure area and depression are also likely to bring the onset of the monsoon to India's western coast, which has been delayed since the speculated June 4. The IMD is monitoring the situation and said it would issue an update by Tuesday.

Private weather agency Skymet has predicted that the onset is now expected on June 9, instead of their earlier prediction of June 7.

The track and intensity of the low-pressure area will become clear in the next 48 hours, the IMD said. If it converts into a deep depression and later a cyclone, then its impact will be visible in Maharashtra on June 14 or 15 only, the department added. The IMD will update its warning on the basis of the LPA's development.

According to Weater.com and some online weather bloggers, the cyclone will bring heavy rainfall to Maharashtra from June 8 to 10 and further escalate by June 11-12 to bring very heavy rains.

As per IMD's list of names from 2020, the upcoming potential cyclone will be named Cyclone Biparjoy, a name suggested by Bangladesh. The previous cyclone, dubbed Mocha, made landfall in Myanmar in May 2023 and killed over 463 people and left 719 injured.

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The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) issues a rotational list of names for tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea covering 13 member countries and the names of the cyclones are decided based on that list.

The most recent list of names for cyclones published by the IMD in April 2020 consists of 169 names compiled into 13 sub-lists that can be used for cyclone nomenclature.

With Cyclone Mocha, List 1 was exhausted and Cyclone Biparjoy will make the start of List 2. "Biporjoy" is a Bengali word that means disaster in English.

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With agency inputs.

First Published:Jun 5, 2023 4:20 PM IST