weather.com meteorologists
Tropical Cyclone Yaas has formed in the Bay of Bengal and will threaten eastern India and Bangladesh with flooding rainfall, storm surge and high winds by Wednesday.
Yaas is gradually gaining strength in the northern Bay of Bengal, where it's producing increasingly concentrated convection near its center of circulation.
It is most likely to track northwestward toward eastern India's West Bengal and northern Odisha states. West Bengal's capital city is Kolkata, where some 14 million people live.
Current Information and Projected PathIt's uncertain how much strengthening future Yaas will undergo before it makes landfall, but it is currently expected to be the equivalent in strength to a hurricane. Landfall is most likely to occur along the West Bengal or far northeast Odisha coast sometime on Wednesday.
Heavy rainfall is likely to trigger flooding no matter how intense this system becomes, particularly on the eastern half of Yaas' circulation. The potential for flooding exists in northeast India as well as in Bangladesh.
India's Meteorological Department has issued warnings for heavy rainfall in West Bengal, northern Odisha and Jharkhand states.
There will also be the potential for damaging winds as well as storm-surge flooding, but the magnitude of those threats will depend on much future Yaas intensifies.
Rainfall ForecastThe northern Bay of Bengal is extremely prone to storm surge flooding since its triangular shape acts to funnel water into Bangladesh and northeast India, and the very shallow bottom of the bay allows the surge to pile up to very high heights. Thus, there is good reason to be concerned when a hurricane-strength tropical cyclone tracks through the Bay of Bengal.
India's West Bengal State and Bangladesh were struck by Tropical Cyclone Amphan a year ago in May. More than 100 people were killed and millions were displaced from their homes.
This will likely be the second tropical cyclone to impact India in just over a week.
Tropical Cyclone Tauktae was the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane at landfall in northwest India's Gujarat State last Monday night, according to the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center. This tied Tauktae with a May 1999 cyclone for the strongest cyclone by estimated wind speed to landfall in Gujarat, according to NOAA's database.
Tauktae has been blamed for more than 50 deaths in India.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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