Cyclonic storm 'Kyant' which was estimated to make landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast as it advanced into the Bay of Bengal, has weakened into a deep depression.
"It will weaken into a deep depression during the next 12 hours and further into a depression in the subsequent 24 hours before the landfall,” a bulletin from the Visakhapatnam Cyclone Warning centre said on Thursday morning.
Confirming the news, the India Met Department (IMD) reportedly said that the deep depression was around 320 km south-east of Vishakhapatnam, 460 km east of Machilipatnam, and 600 km east-northeast of Nellore on Thursday.
"Surface wind from southeasterly direction with speed reaching 45 to 50 kmph with gusting 55 kmph would prevail along and off south Odisha coast and 35 to 40 kmph gusting to 45 kmph over north Odisha coast," an IMD bulletin added.
According to Skymet Weather, incursion of dry winds and increase in vertical wind shear have led to the weakening of the system.
Skymet also predicted that the system would continue to weaken, but still had the potential of causing heavy rainfall over Andhra Pradesh for three days.
The impact of the cyclone will be felt from Thursday with squally winds, rain and rough sea conditions, weather officials said on Wednesday.
Distant warning signals have been hoisted at Visakhapatnam, Machilipatnam, Krishnapatnam and Nizamapatnam ports.
Authorities in Vijayanagaram district in south coastal Andhra have been put on alert. District Collector Vivek Yadav asked officials to warn fishermen in 26 villages along the coast not to venture into the sea.
About a 1,000-km long coastline of Andhra Pradesh is vulnerable to cyclonic storms during the October-December period.
In October 2014, cyclonic storm HudHud had slammed the Visakhapatnam coast, killing 49 people and affecting about 21 lakh families in the state. It also caused massive destruction to infrastructure in the port city.
(Inputs IANS)