At around Wednesday midnight, the depression intensified into cyclonic storm "Mandous," over the Southwest Bay of Bengal.
The release by IMD read, “The storm continued to move nearly west-northwestwards with a speed of 11 kmph during past 6 hours, and lay centred in the morning (0830 hours IST) of 08th December, 2022 over Southwest Bay of Bengal, near latitude 9.5°N and longitude 83.8°E, about 300 km east-northeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 420 km east-southeast of Jaffna (Sri Lanka), 460 km east-southeast of Karaikal and about 550 km southeast of Chennai."
The release further stated, “It is very likely to move west-northwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts between Puducherry and Sriharikota with a maximum sustained wind speed of 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph around midnight of 9 December."
Rainfall warning
As per the IMD forecast very heavy rains are expected on Thursday over coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry & Karaikal and isolated heavy rainfall over adjoining areas of south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema.
On Friday, light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over north coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall likely over adjoining south Coastal Andhra Pradesh and north interior Tamilnadu and Rayalaseema.
IMD also issued a storm surge warning, "The storm surge of about 0.5 m height above the astronomical tide likely to inundate low lying areas of north coastal Tamilnadu and Puducherry during the time of landfall."
