KARACHI: Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said Friday that the ‘Biparjoy’ cyclone could impact Pakistan and neighbouring India’s coastlines.
In a statement, the Met Office said the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS) Biparjoy, persisting with its intensity, slightly changed its course and slowly tracked in the north-northeast direction during the past 12 hours and now lies near Latitude 14.8°N & Longitude 66.5°E at a distance of about 1,120km south of Karachi.
Maximum sustained surface winds are 130-150km per hour with gusts of 160km per hour around the system centre, the PMD said.
The favourable environmental conditions (sea surface temperature of 30-32°C, low vertical wind shear, and upper-level divergence) still support the system to intensify further.
The Met Office said owing to a shift in upper-level steering winds, there is uncertainty in global models’ opinion regarding the track forecast of the cyclone, with some taking it to the Oman-Pakistan western coast and others indicating towards the Indian Gujarat-Pakistan Sindh coast.
“Considering this uncertainty, the system is likely to keep tracking further north/northeastward during the next 2 days.”
PMD’s cyclone warning centre in Karachi is monitoring the system, it added.
Impacts?
Fishermen are advised not to venture into the open sea from Monday, 12 June, onwards till the system is over as the Arabian Sea conditions may get very rough/high accompanied by high tides along the coast.
With its probable northeast track, the rain-thunderstorm — with some heavy falls and squally winds — is expected on the Sindh-Makran coast from 13 June night to 4 June morning.
Sea conditions are very high/phenomenal around the system centre with a maximum wave height of 25-28 feet.