Mekunu may cause heavy showers along Maha coast

Mumbai: Cyclone Mekunu, which hit the Yemeni island of Socotra, causing severe flooding and damage, is likely to trigger heavy showers along the western coast of Maharashtra in the next few days, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said on Thursday.

The Konkan region of Maharashtra will get a few showers in the next few days. Some isolated places in Konkan will receive rain, but the rest of Maharashtra will have no impact, the official said.

The IMD said in a bulletin that the storm was some 190 kilometres, or 118 miles, east-northeast of Socotra Island.

“The Mekunu cyclone has moved away from the Indian coast, but it is likely to cause the western coast receive some heavy spells of showers,” the official added.

The winds blowing in central Maharashtra have slightly brought down the temperature in Marathwada region. There is an overall drop in the temperature by a couple of degrees Celsius, but Vidarbha is still simmering, the Met official said.

The maximum temperature in Chandrapur district in Vidarbha had touched 45.5 degrees celsius, highest in the state on Wednesday. Temperature across Marathwada and Vidarbha may come down from Thursday onwards.

“The circular winds in Bay of Bengal have caused some cloud formation over parts of Maharashtra, which has reduced the temperature and brought relief to people,” the official said.

The Yemeni island of Socotra has been pounded by Cyclone Mekunu. The island, listed by UNESCO as a world natural heritage site, has been the focus of a dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Yemen’s internationally recognized government amid that country’s war. Saudi troops recently deployed there. Meteorologists anticipate the storm making landfall near Salalah and neighboring Yemen on Saturday morning.