Cyclone Murasu intensified into a severe cyclonic storm over the west-central and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal overnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday. The system moved nearly northwestwards at 20 kmph during the past six hours and lay centred at 2.30 a.m. IST on November 2 near latitude 13.6 degrees North and longitude 82.5 degrees East.

Source: ANI

At that hour the severe storm was about 260 km east-northeast of Chennai, 290 km east-southeast of Nellore, 320 km south-southeast of Machilipatnam, 310 km east-southeast of Kavali, 330 km southeast of Ongole and 470 km south of Visakhapatnam. IMD's 5 a.m. bulletin put its winds at 90 to 100 kmph gusting to 110 — inside the severe band on the IMD scale, where a cyclonic storm runs 62 to 88 kmph and a severe one 89 to 117 kmph.

Source: IMD National Bulletin No. 11 via Transclew

290 kmNellore to storm centre, 2.30 a.m. Mon
100–110 kmphForecast landfall winds, gusting 120
1–1.5 mForecast storm surge above tide

The crossing forecast has not moved. The IMD expects Murasu to keep moving northwestwards and cross the south Andhra Pradesh coast between Nellore and Narsapur, close to Ongole, between 11.30 p.m. on Monday, November 2 and 4 a.m. on Tuesday, November 3, as a severe cyclonic storm with sustained winds of 100 to 110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph. A storm surge of 1 to 1.5 metres above the astronomical tide is forecast at landfall, most of all in Bapatla, Krishna and Prakasam districts.

Source: ANI

The warning for the Andhra Pradesh and adjoining north Tamil Nadu coasts stays at Stage 3, the red message IMD raised in its 5.30 p.m. bulletin on Sunday. Fishermen have been told to stay off the Andhra coast from Monday morning until the afternoon of Wednesday, November 4, and the IMD bulletin suggests moving people living in huts on the coast to safer places, regulating train and road traffic and stopping all fishing. The bulletin lists major damage to thatched huts and kutcha houses and the uprooting of large roadside trees among the expected effects of a storm of this strength.

Source: IMD via Transclew live updates

In Odisha, the Rayagada district administration stepped up preparations on Sunday: a virtual emergency review meeting chaired by the District Collector reviewed early warning systems, shelters and relief arrangements, Additional District Magistrate (General) Ravindranath Kahanra said. All 11 fire station teams have been deployed, with JCBs, excavators and Hydra cranes positioned at Gumma Ghati and Mukundpur Ghati to clear National Highway 326 if it is blocked. Rayagada was under a yellow warning until November 2, followed by an orange warning for November 3 and 4, based on IMD and Special Relief Commissioner reports.

Source: ANI

Awaaz Punjab reported through Sunday that Murasu was named at 11.30 a.m., that the IMD raised its warning to Stage 3 with a storm surge warning, that schools in Chennai and Tiruvallur would stay shut on Monday and that six Telangana districts were on orange alert. Overnight intensification was the step the forecast had promised for Monday morning — it has now happened, a few hours later than IMD's late-Sunday bulletins expected. On IMD's forecast table the storm weakens over land after crossing: a cyclonic storm by late Tuesday morning and a deep depression by Tuesday night, moving north.