Cyclone Michaung gets listed as a peculiar storm, being erratic for more than one reason. From inception, the storm remained over sea for fairly long, in excess of one week. A cyclonic circulation over Strait of Malacca and north Malay Peninsula emerged on 27-28 Nov 2023. It meandered for sometime to become a low pressure area and later seen as a depression on 01stDecember,early morning itself. The weather system lastly crossed Andhra Pradesh coast on 05thDecember as Severe Cyclonic Storm. Some of the salient features of the storm were:
- First storm of the year over Bay of Bengal to cross East Coast, three others hit Bangladesh & Myanmar
- Traveled over sea for over one week
- Remained in close proximity of coast for over 48 hours as cyclonic storm
- Became Severe Cyclonic Storm keeping very close to coast for more than 24 hours
- Ravaged coastline for over 24 hours, much before making landfall
- Crossed coast near Bapatla, not attempted earlier by other storms
- Suspension of air operations at Chennai airport for over 15 hours
- Recording deluge of 50 cm rainfall over Chennai in 48 hours
Total of six tropical storms formed in the Indian seas this year so far. Three of these being extremely severe cyclonic storms : Biparjoy and Tej over Arabian Sea and Mocha in Bay of Bengal. Michaung became an exclusive storm to hit the east coast this year. Michaung also becomes first storm to hit Andhra Pradesh after a gap of nearly 2 years. Storm Gulab had made landfall near Kalingapatnam on 26thSeptember 2021. Another storm Nivar, that year struck near Karaikal (Tamil Nadu) on 24thNov 2020.
Cyclonic storms of post monsoon season generally go for Odisha, West Bengal or Bangladesh in the month of October. November remains favorite for striking Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Last year, in pre monsoon, severe cyclonic storm Asani also threatened Andhra Pradesh but weakened to deep depression before making landfall over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Another cyclone Mandous headed for Chennai in December2022 but weakened over the sea itself and made landfall as depression.
Cyclone Michaung becomes a weird storm impacting more fiercely over coastal Tamil Nadu ( Chennai) before the landfall over Andhra Pradesh, the next day. The weather system has weakened to a low pressure area. Scattered rainfall is likely over Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal over next 48 hours and improve thereafter.
