NEW DELHI: In a rare weather event, Cyclone ‘Gulab’ that came across the Bay of Bengal to hit the eastern coast on Sunday, could be re-born as cyclone "Shaheen" on Thursday evening as it moves across the Arabian Sea after having petered off into a depression while traversing the Indian land mass through Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Over the next 24 hours the system could gather steam and move towards Oman on October 1. If the new Cyclone is formed, it would be called ‘Shaheen’, the name given by Qatar which is one of the member countries for naming of tropical cyclones over north
Indian Ocean including Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea.
“The system is likely to emerge into northeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Gujarat coast around September 30 evening and there is a likelihood for the system to further intensify over northeast Arabian Sea during the subsequent 24 hours,” said the IMD, predicting the possibility of a new system along western coast.
The new cyclone will not affect India’s western coast. But, it will, on its way from east to west, continue to bring isolated heavy rains over Maharashtra and Gujarat (Saurashtra and Kutch) during the coming three-four days (till Thursday-Friday).
Indian coast lines had experienced such cyclonic phenomena nearly three years ago (10-19 November, 2018) when very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS), called ‘Gaja’, crossed Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast on November 15, 2018, weakened into a depression over land and re-emerged as a fresh depression over south-east Arabian Sea on next day.
It re-intensified into a deep depression over Arabian Sea on November 17 and finally became a ‘low pressure area’ over south-east Arabian Sea on November 19.This Cyclone had even made a loop in the Bay of Bengal during November 12-13, 2018.