‘Mahasen’ nears coast

Cyclone ‘Mahasen’ was continuing to move towards the Chittagong coast, prompting retention of cautionary signal ‘3’ in all ports of Bangladesh.

In a special bulletin of the Bangladesh Met office, the cyclone was located around 1,285 kilometres south to south-west of Chittagong port, 1,305 kilometres south to southwest of Cox’s Bazar and 1,305 kilometres south of Mongla port at 6:00am on Monday.

The cyclone is likely to intensify further and move in a north to north-westerly direction, the bulletin said.

But the bulletin said that the cyclone was moving more slowly compared to the last two days. After Sunday evening, ‘Mahasen’ has only moved 25 kilometres.

Bangladesh Met office forecast maximum sustained wind speed of about 62 kms per hour within 54 kilometres of the storm centre , which may go up to 88 kilometres per hour. The sea will remain rough around this region.

The United States military said that the cyclone might sweep through the Rakhine province of Myanmar and adjacent coastal areas of Bangladesh by Tuesday afternoon.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) of the US Navy and US Air Force estimated that winds might touch up to 166 kilometres per hour at the time of the landfall of 'Mahasen'.

Bangladesh Meteorological Department Forecaster Hafizur Rahman told bdnews24.com that ESCAP typhoon committee named the cyclone ‘Mahasen’ after a King who ruled in Sri Lanka during third century.