Bhubaneswar:
As the countdown for the cyclone Phailin begins, the IMD expected its landfall will take place at about 6 pm on Saturday.
"We expect that the cyclone Phailin will make landfall at about 6 pm on Saturday, October 12," Dr Mrutunjay Mohapatra, Chief of India's Cyclone Warning Division, said.
Mohapatra said as the system (cyclone) is moving inside the sea at the rate of 15 km per hour and lay centred at 5.30 pm at 400 km southeast of Gopalpur, it was expected that it would make landfall at 6 pm.
Phailin, which had already been categorised as Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS), has been moving inside the sea where wind speed is about 210-220 kmph with gusting of 230 kmph.
The system will move tomorrow at 5.30 am when the wind speed inside the sea remains 210-220 kmph with gusting 235 kmph. The situation and circumstances will remain same till it makes landfall with a speed of 210 to 220 kmph with gusting 235 kmph.
After hitting the land, the system will weaken into severe cyclonic storm from its previous status of a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm. Then, the IMD data said, the wind speed will remain between 90 kmph to 110 kmph gusting to 110 kmph at about 5.30 am on next day (13 October).
At about 5.30 am on October 13, the wind speed would be 50 to 60 kmph to gusting 70 kmph. The system would again lose strength and become a deep depression.
Next day on October 14, the system will further lose intensity and turn into only a depression with wind speed of 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph.
Under the impact of the Phailin, many places of Odisha will experience heavy rainfall leading to flood in some area,it said.
