Cyclone Biparjoy brings 'extremely heavy rainfall' to Sindh coast

KARACHI: Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Biparjoy over east-central Arabian Sea will generate widespread wind-dust/thunderstorm rain with some very heavy to extremely heavy falls with ferocious winds in Sindh’s coastal districts from June 13-17, ARY News reported.

Sindh’s Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparker and Umerkot districts will receive heavy to extremely heavy rain fall during 13-17 June accompanied with squally winds of 80-100Km/hour, Met Office warned.

With its probable approach to the southeast Sindh coast, the cyclonic storm with dust/thunderstorm-rain with few heavy falls and accompanied with severe winds of 60-80 Km/hour likely in Karachi, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar and Mirpurkhas districts from 13/14 June to June 16.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) in its forecast located the cyclone near latitude 18.1°N and longitude 67.5°E, and said the system is “likely to keep tracking further in the north-northeast direction during next 24 hours”.

The PMD added that the cyclone will then recurve northeastward on June 14 and cross between Keti Bandar (southeast Sindh) and the Indian Gujarat coast on 15 June afternoon as a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS).

Meanwhile, the NDMA quoted the Pacific Disaster Centre (PDC) stating that around 1.38 million people from both Pakistan and India were exposed to the cyclone, of which 305,755 were among the vulnerable population.

Cyclone Biparjoy presently lies near Latitude 18.1°N & Longitude 67.5°E at a distance of about 760km south of Karachi, 740km south of Thatta and 840km southeast of Ormara.
Maximum sustained surface winds are 150-160 Km/hour with gusts 180 Km/hour around the system center with maximum wave height 35-40 feet.