Dear Comrades,
Millions of people in India are in the path of Tropical Cyclone Hudhud, which is strengthening as it churns over the Bay of Bengal in the northern Indian Ocean basin.
Hudhud, also known by its alphanumeric designation 03B, formed Tuesday evening U.S. time near the Andaman Islands, about 400 miles southwest of Yangon, Myanmar. The developing cyclone dumped torrential rainfall on those islands, with Port Blair reporting 248 millimeters (9.76 inches) in the 48-hour period ending at 0300 GMT Wednesday (11 p.m. EDT Tuesday).
(INTERACTIVE: Hudhud Satellite Loop)
Hudhud is now moving west-northwest and strengthening. The U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecasts it to become the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane as it makes landfall along the east-central coast of India in eastern Andhra Pradesh or Odisha (Orissa) states early Sunday, local time. (Eastern India is 9.5 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Daylight Time).
Near the center of the projected path of Tropical Cyclone Hudhud is the port city of Visakhapatnam, the third largest city on India's Bay of Bengal coast with a population of over 2 million.
(INTERACTIVE: Hudhud Forecast Path)
Along with the threats of storm surge flooding and high winds, torrential rain over 10 inches in some spots generally along and to the northeast of the path of Hudhud will trigger dangerous flash flooding.
Below is a forecast model rainfall map over the next five days, depicting the general area of rainfall flood threat.
It was exactly a year ago that Cyclone Phailin moved over roughly the same stretch of water, making landfall in India's Odisha state on Oct. 12. The storm claimed 44 lives, but was considered an overwhelming success in India's attempts to implement emergency preparedness plans. Over one million people were evacuated ahead of the storm, and the death toll was far smaller than that of a similar tropical cyclone in 1999, which claimed some 10,000 lives.
http://www.weather.com/
