Cyclone Tej to intensify into 'very severe cyclonic storm': PMD

ISLAMABAD: Cyclone Tej — developing in the southwest Arabian Sea for the past few days — has transformed into an extremely severe cyclonic storm (ESCS), the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said Monday.

In its alert today, the PMD notified that Cyclone Tej has been moving northwestward over the last 12 hours, and it is currently "centred around latitude 14.4 N and longitude 53.2 °E."

The latest advisory, which was issued at 10:00 PST, also revealed that the brewing cyclone is situated "about 300km southwest of Salalah (Oman), 220km southeast of Al Ghaydah (Yemen) and 1520km southwest of Gwadar (Pakistan)".

Furthermore, the greatest sustained surface winds of the cyclone are 150–160 km/h, with gusts up to 180 km/h.

The notification further states that the water conditions are quite high right now, with maximum wave heights of 35 feet around the system's core.

"The system is likely to continue moving in the northwest direction and cross the Yemen coast near Al Ghaydah by midnight as a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS) with packing winds of 120-130km/h, gusting 150km/h."

However, it is important to note that there will be no impact on any of Pakistan's coastal areas from this system.

Meanwhile, the PMD stated that the weather is expected to remain dry for the next few days in most districts of Sindh.

"Strong winds and thundershowers are likely to occur in and around some parts of Balochistan today, but dry weather is expected for the next few days."