Cyclone Hudhud had crossed Bheemunipatnam - close to Visakhapatnam - at around 12.30 pm on Sunday, causing large scale destruction in the area due to strong winds. Maximum sustained winds at the time of crossing the Andhra Pradesh coast was between 170 and 180 kmph, gusting to 195 kmph.
Cyclone Hudhud after making landfall on Sunday moved northwestward and continued as a cyclonic storm for more than 12 hours, which generally is not the case. Cyclones after making landfall fail to maintain their storm characteristics for a very long time and weaken rapidly
But Hudhud's affect could be seen till late evening, in form of strong winds. Places like Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Gopalpur in Odisha observed powerful winds for more than six hours.
The cyclone also caused heavy rain in the region. Anakapalle in Andhra Pradesh received a whopping 181 mm of rain in 24 hours, from 8.30 am on Sunday. Kalingapatnam and Kakinada observed 66.7 mm and 30.6 mm of rain, respectively. 76.3 mm of rain was observed in Tuni.
In Odisha, Koraput received 89 mm of rain, Parbani 50 mm, Cuttack 61.4 mm and Bhubaneswar recorded 40.6 mm of rain. Rain in Gopalpur was 6.4 mm, Puri 9.5 mm, and Paradip 10.8 mm due to their distance from the landfall area in Andhra Pradesh. However, strong winds of over 100 kmph were witnessed in these areas till late evening.
Currently, the cyclone lies as a depression close to Raipur in Chhattisgarh. It will continue to move further northward and weaken into a low pressure area in another 24 hours, over Bihar and east Uttar Pradesh. This will lead to some good rain in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and east Uttar Pradesh.
