Kolkata: Cyclone ‘Amphan’ lay centred about 170 km south of West Bengal’s Digha as an extremely severe cyclonic storm over west central Bay of Bengal and is likely to make landfall near Sunderbans between Wednesday afternoon and evening, the MeT department said.
‘Amphan’ is likely to move north-northeastwards after landfall and pass close to Kolkata in its eastern side, causing extensive damage and flooding of low-lying areas in the city, the weather office said.
The system, which was moving in a northward direction at a speed of 20 km per hour, was situated 300 km southeast of Kolkata at 11 am on Wednesday, it said.
It is likely to weaken and move through Nadia and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal as a cyclonic storm and then into Bangladesh as a deep depression on Thursday morning, the MeT department said.
The intensity near the centre of the storm was 170 to 180 kmph gusting to 200kmph, it said.