Cyclone Montha Weather Update: IMD Issues Red Alert in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh; Heavy Rain Likely in Maharashtra

Cyclone Montha continues to be a significant calamity for India; the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for several coastal regions. The extremely severe cyclonic storm made landfall on Tuesday evening in the region between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam, south of Kakinada, along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts. IMD reported that the landfall process began at 7 PM and lasted for several hours, slowly turning into a cyclonic storm over coastal Andhra Pradesh.

To update the cyclone's current status, IMD says Cyclone Montha will keep on moving northwest across the coastal area of Andhra Pradesh while still being a cyclone for six more hours at least and later on, fading as a deep depression. The cyclone will shower very heavy to extremely heavy rain in parts of Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Telangana, South Chhattisgarh, and Odisha all day Wednesday.

Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, and Ganjam districts are on red alert in Odisha, while the alert for the other districts is yellow. In Telangana, red alert is in force for Mulugu, Khammam, and Bhadradri Kothagudem, while Nalgonda, Mancherial, Peddapalle, Hanamkonda, and Suryapet are on orange alert for heavy rainfall. The majority of the districts in Andhra Pradesh, such as Prakasam, Nellore, Eluru, Tirupati, East Godavari, Guntur, and Krishna, are subject to red and orange alerts, where extremely heavy rainfall is expected. Moderate to heavy rain is also forecasted in Kurnool, Anantapuramu, Srisathyasai, Annamayya, Chittoor, and YSR Kadapa.

In addition, Maharashtra and Gujarat will be affected by the cyclone's impact, as the IMD forecast includes heavy rain, thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds in the areas of the Konkan & Goa, Saurashtra & Kutch, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, and Vidarbha. A warning has been given for Vidarbha, Saurashtra, and Kutch, which means that extremely heavy rain is very likely.

The severe weather conditions have also had a negative impact on the aviation industry. GMR airports reported that due to the cyclone, more than 35 flights from Telangana to Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and Rajahmundry were cancelled. Included in the list of cancelled flights are 30 of IndiGo, two of Air India، and five of Air India Express.

Fifteen districts, in Odisha, have been hit badly in terms of normal life, and the Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi mentioned eight southern districts — Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Kandhamal, Kalahandi, and Nabarangpur — as the ones most damaged. The governmental authority of the state has already evacuated 11,000 people and composed 30 teams of ODRF and five teams of NDRF for the operations of rescuing and providing relief.

Cyclone Montha has also had very adverse effects on agriculture in Andhra Pradesh, with the Chief Minister’s Office indicating the loss of crops in the field on the area of 38,000 hectares and horticultural crops on 1.38 lakh hectares. In total, 403 mandals in 22 districts have suffered from the cyclone.

To avoid any risks during the severe weather condition, residents of the affected regions in all the states have been asked to stay home, not to travel, and to keep following the IMD reports very closely while the heavy rains and strong winds last today.