Storm in Arabian Sea moving towards Oman coast; likely to weaken: IMD

A storm in the north Arabian Sea, 160-km west off Naliya coast in Gujarat, is moving towards Oman but is expected to weaken by Monday, the weather office said.

The weather system - categorised as 'depression' - packing wind speeds of upto 50 kmph, had its genesis 100-km west off the Porbandar coast on Saturday morning and lay 170-km south-southeast of Karachi on Sunday evening, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said late on Sunday.

The weather system has been put under the watch of cyclone trackers at the IMD. "It is very likely to maintain the intensity of depression during the next 12 hours and weaken gradually thereafter," a national bulletin issued by the IMD at 8 pm on Sunday said.

According to cyclone trackers, the weather system was very likely to move nearly westwards towards the Oman coast as a remnant low pressure area across northwest Arabian Sea during the next 36 hours.

Between 11.30 am and 5.30 pm. on Sunday, the depression had moved at a speed of 8 kmph west-northwestwards off the Saurashtra and Kutch coasts.

It lay centred at 5.30 pm, about 300 km west-northwest of Porbandar, 200 km west-northwest of Okha, 160 km west of Naliya and 170 km south-southeast of Karachi.

The sea condition is very likely to turn rough to very rough over northwest Arabian Sea and westcentral Arabian Sea, the IMD said and cautioned the fisherfolk against venturing out in the sea.