Cyclone 'Tej' intensifies into extremely severe cyclonic storm

Cyclone ‘Tej’, brewing in the Arabian Sea, intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm on Sunday and is headed towards the Yemen-Oman coasts, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The cyclonic storm is predicted to move northwestwards and cross the Yemen-Oman coasts between Al Ghaidah (Yemen) and Salalah (Oman), close to the east of Al Ghaidah around noon on October 24 as a very severe cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 115-125 kmph, gusting to 140 kmph, it said. “The very severe cyclonic storm ‘Tej’ intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm and lay centred about 160 km east-southeast of Socotra (Yemen), 540 km south-southeast of Salalah (Oman), and 550 km southeast of Al Ghaidah (Yemen) at 8:30 am on Sunday,” the IMD said in a statement. The IMD also said the depression over the west-central Bay of Bengal is likely to further intensify into a deep depression by early Monday morning. It is then predicted to recurve and move north-northeastwards during the subsequent three days towards Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal coasts, the Met office said.