Visakhapatnam: The cyclonic storm Mandous over the southwest Bay of Bengal, moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 13kmph on Thursday, intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and lay centered at 5.30pm on Thursday over the Southwest Bay of Bengal, about 250km northeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 320km east-northeast of Jaffna (Sri Lanka), 350km east-southeast of Karaikal and 440km southeast of Chennai, the IMD said.
It is very likely to maintain the intensity of a severe cyclonic storm till the early morning of Friday and weaken gradually into a cyclonic storm by forenoon.
The cyclonic storm would continue to move west-northwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts between Puducherry and Sriharikota, around Mahabalipuram, with a maximum sustained wind speed of 65-75kmph, gusting to 85kmph around midnight on Friday.
Private website Skymet said though the main cluster of clouds was away from the coast, the peripherals of…