As Cyclone Asna on Saturday steered away from Pakistan’s coastline — lying about 200 kilometres away from Karachi — residents still braced for expected heavy rains brought by the weather system.
A deep depression (a very strong low-pressure area), which the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) warned on Thursday would bring widespread rainfall, intensified into Cyclone Asna on Friday.
According to a PMD alert issued at 7am today, the cyclone over the northeast Arabian Sea off the Sindh coast has moved further westward during the past nine hours and now lies at around about 200km southwest of Karachi, 220km south-southeast of Ormara and 380km southeast of Gwadar.
“The system is likely to track further west-southwestwards,” the Met Office added.
According to an update on Zoom Earth at 8am — provided via the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) — the cyclonic storm was located 187km southwest of Karachi and has tracked west-northwestward at 13km/h over the past 6 hours.
It added that Cyclone Asna is expected to minimally intensify to 85km/h in around 12 hours and in 24 hours, a weakening trend will start.
“Weakening to tropical depression strength is expected to occur in around two days,” the JTWC was quoted as saying.
Under its influence, rain-thundershowers with few heavy falls and accompanied with squally winds (60-70km/h gusting 80km/h) were likely today evening/night in the Karachi division as well as in Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Matiari, Jamshoro and Dadu districts of Sindh.
The PMD said rains of the same intensity were expected in Balochistan’s Hub, Lasbela, Awaran, Kech and Gwadar districts till tomorrow night.
“Heavy rains may create water logging in low-lying areas of Makran coast. Sea conditions are likely to remain rough/very rough with squally winds of 60-70 km/h gusting 80km/h,” the Met Office warned.
It advised fishermen in Sindh not to venture into the sea today and those in Balochistan to not do so till tomorrow.
‘Rare’ cyclone
Met officials have described the formation of a cyclone in the monsoon season as a “rare phenomenon”.
“It would be a rare event as cyclones are uncommon in the monsoon season,” Chief Meteorologist Dr Sardar Sarfaraz said earlier.
“There is an 80 per cent chance for a cyclonic storm’s formation when the deep depression would move from land to the sea and get favourable conditions.”
Sarfraz earlier said if the storm materialised it would be the first cyclone in the Arabian Sea in August since 1976 and would get the name ‘Asna’ suggested by Pakistan. He added that regional cyclones were assigned names according to a list prepared by a 13-country panel, including Pakistan.
Due to the forecast of heavy showers and urban flooding warnings, schools in Karachi and Hyderabad were shut on Friday.
A ban on “fishermen venturing into the sea, as well as on swimming, bathing, diving, and wading in the sea/beaches and coastal areas“ of Karachi Division had been imposed from Aug 29 till Aug 31 (Saturday).
Meanwhile, in India, where at least 31 people have died this weak from rain-related incidents, authorities evacuated more than 8,700 people from ten districts in the Gujarat state yesterday, officials said.
