Phethai Cyclone: People jittery as RSMC, RTGS forecasts differ

VIJAYAWADA: Where on the AP coast is Cyclone Phethai likely to make a landfall on Monday? Is it between Kakinada and Ongole or between Kakinada and Visakhapatnam? Two government agencies monitoring Phethai have been coming out with contradictory predictions on the region of landfall.
If one goes through the bulletins of past two days issued by Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for Tropical Cyclones Over North Indian Ocean (RSMC) and the Real Time Governance Society (RTGS), there is a lot of variation not only in the region of landfall but also in windspeed.There was also variation with regard to the progression of cyclone. The contradiction has created confusion among people living in vulnerable areas.
While the RSMC maintained till Saturday night that Phethai was in a ‘depression’ stage, the RTGS said it had formed into a cyclonic storm by Saturday afternoon. The RSMC is under IMD, and the RTGS under AP government. According to RTGS, on Saturday and Sunday, the landfall will be between East Godavari and Visakhapatnam. The IMD, which has been predicting the landfall between Ongole and Kakinada, however, on Sunday changed it to around Kakinada. The IMD’s prediction on Sunday is close to RTGS prediction made two days earlier.