Rare phenomenon: Gulab may intensify into another cyclone

After remnants of cyclone Gulab that hit the eastern coast of the country brought torrential rains to central Maharashtra, a senior India Meteorological Department official said on Wednesday that we are witnessing a rare occurrence as the weather system might generate another cyclonic storm.

Dr Jayant Sarkar, head of the regional meteorological department of the IMD, said such phenomenon does not happen very frequently, 'though it is known among our fraternity'.

'It did bring excess showers over Maharashtra and put most of the regions such as Konkan, Madhya Maharashtra and Marathwada into surplus precipitation category,' he told PTI.

A cyclone starts with a 'depression'. Generally, a cyclonic system loses its severity once it hits the land, because the supply of moisture goes down.

Cyclone Gulab hit the land between Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam on the eastern coast. But despite losing moisture supply, the system kept moving on westwards and brought intense showers over Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and later Gujarat in the last three days, said Sarkar.

'The weather system received some moisture and it accelerated towards the Arabian Sea and it is expected to leave the land from Saurashtra region. With more moisture it would get intensified from depression to deep depression to cyclone,' he said.

'At the same time, it will take away moisture from the coastal areas and reduce the rainfall over Gujarat's Saurashtra region as well as north Madhya Maharashtra and Konkan region,' he said.

If it transforms into a new cyclone, it will be named 'Shaheen', he said.