Deep depression to spread heavy, flooding rain across India

A tropical disturbance that brought devastating flooding to parts of Indochina last week, will threaten central India with areas of tropical downpours this week.

The same tropical disturbance that brought over 750 mm (30 inches) of rainfall to central Vietnam last week emerged off the coast of Myanmar on Friday.

Once this feature moved into the warm waters of the Andaman Sea, it began reorganize. By Saturday, local time, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) considered this storm a well-marked low as the storm moved into the Bay of Bengal.

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On Sunday, local time, this area of low pressure was designated a deep depression after moving into the Bay of Bengal.

The tropical depression made landfall in India around 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday, just north of the city of Kakinada. With sustained wind speeds of around 56 km/h (35 mph), the deep depression is equivalent to a tropical storm on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale.

As the depression approached land on Monday and Monday night it doused the coastline with heavy, tropical rainfall, including some major cities on India's eastern shores.

"In just 24 hour's time, the city of Kakinada reported 261 mm (10.28 inches) of rain as of Tuesday morning. Visakhapatnam's total during the same time frame was 227 mm (8.94 inches)," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike Doll.

Both of these locations are likely to see additional heavy rain into at least Wednesday before the depression moves westward into central India.

"The main impact from this feature will be heavy rain and the risk of flooding spreading from Andhra Pradesh to Maharashtra and northern Karnataka into Thursday, local time," said AccuWeather Lead International Forecasting Expert Jason Nicholls.

Rainfall totals are forecast to reach 100-200 mm (4-8 inches) along where the center of the storm tracks, which may just swipe the city of Hyderabad. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 300 mm (12 inches) will be mostly likely near the center of the depression.

Otherwise, 50-100 mm (2-4 inches) of rainfall will be common across the region, as far north as Nagpur and southward to Anantapur.

Heavy rain is forecast to not only reach central India, but span coast-to-coast, reaching cities like Mumbai and Pune by Wednesday night. Rounds of rain are likely to continue in this area even through the middle of the week.

Locally strong wind gusts will be possible as the depression moves westward, even if it is no longer categorized as a depression. These winds could cause localized power outages and downed tree branches.

While the tropical feature is unlikely to keep it's depression status throughout the week, it's not out of the question that it could restrengthen late this week.

"As the circulation of the former deep depression emerges over the Arabian Sea Thursday night or early Friday, there is a chance it could restrengthen into a depression," warned Nicholls.

AccuWeather meteorologist will continue to monitor for this redevelopment over the Arabian Sea, as well as any new development in the Bay of Bengal, over the coming week.

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