Fizzling Cyclone Maha likely to skirt India's Gujarat coast today

KARACHI: Cyclone Maha over east-central Arabian Sea has weakened into a Severe Cyclonic Storm and tracked eastwards during last 12 hours, Pakistan Meteorological Department said in its alert.

The cyclone was located at 08:00 PM PST on 6th November around Latitude 19.8 North and Longitude 68.3 East at a distance of about 570 km south-southeast of Karachi, the met office said.

With maximum sustained surface winds 80-100 kmph Tropical Cyclone Maha is likely to weaken further into a cyclonic storm, continue tracking eastward and cross south Gujarat coast India by Thursday, the PMD alert said.

The met office has advised fishermen of Sindh not to venture into deep sea till Thursday (today).

India’s weather department in its fresh forecast said, Cyclone Maha, which was earlier expected to hit Gujarat on Thursday, may just skirt its coast.

Cyclone Maha is weakening

Earlir, NASA in a report said Tropical Cyclone Maha’s maximum sustained winds were near 50 knots (58 mph/93 kph) on Nov. 6 at 4 a.m. It was located near latitude 19.8 degrees north and longitude 66.9 degrees east, about 300 nautical miles south of Karachi, according to the report.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expect Maha to continue moving east and weakening. The system is expected to skirt the Saurashtra coast in India and dissipate before making landfall north of Mumbai in northwestern India, NASA report said.

NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Northern Indian Ocean and provided forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center with a view of Tropical Cyclone Maha’s eroding structure that helped confirm it is weakening.