Tropical storm Gulab crossed coastal Andhra Pradesh around mid night on 26thSeptember 2021. The cyclone made landfall near Srikakulam over North Coastal Andhra Pradesh. The storm struck the coastline of Srikakulam district with speed of about 80kmh and gusting to 95kmh.
The cyclone resulted deluge over Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Kalingapatnam, Srikakulam and Kakinada. The fiercest strike was for Visakhapatnam with a downpour of 267mm in about 12hr. The other chief amounts of rainfall being : Kakinada-113mm, Vijaywada-108mm and Kalingapatnam-126mm.
The post monsoon stormy season commences from October and goes on till December for the Indian Seas, both Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Accordingly, very few storms form in September, the fag end of the southwest monsoon season. In that, striking Andhra Pradesh coastline is further rare, as the storms normally head for Odisha coast. The last storm to hit Andhra Pradesh in September was in 2005.
Cyclone Pyaar made a landfall about 20km northeast of Kalingapatnam on 19 September 2005. Coincidentally, cyclone Gulab also made landfall nearly at the same place after 16 years, on 26thSeptember 2021. Cyclone strikes are not very common along the entire east coast in September. Gulab becomes the 3rd cyclone of this century to strike east coast along with Pyaar, striking Andhra Pradesh( 2005) and Daye hitting Odisha near Gopalpur on 21stSeptember 2018.
For 3 consecutive years, 2015,2016 and 2017, no storm hit Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast. But, for the next 2 successive years, 2018 and 2019, powerful storms hit this region. In 2018, very severe cyclonic storm Titli hit near Palasa in Srikakulam district on 11thOctober 2018. The very next year, extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani made landfall in Odisha, near Puri on 03rd May 2019. And this year, another strong cyclone Yaas crossed Odisha coast on 26thMay 2021.
Cyclone Gulab has since weakened to a deep depression and is heading westward. It is likely to weaken further and move across Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra. Heavy rainfall along with high speed winds are likely to persist for the next 24hr. Heavy rains will gradually vacate Andhra Pradesh and shift over Telangana, Vidarbha and Marathwada. Later, even Mumbai is likely to witness heavy rainfall on 28thSeptember.
