Met dept says cyclone to start losing intensity today.

Byline: Faiza Ilyas and Hasan Mansoor

KARACHI -- Several villages along Sindh coast were partially affected by the tidal waves rising under the influence of Kyarr - a super cyclonic storm - which is expected to start losing its intensity on Tuesday (today), according to the Met department.

It has forecast light to moderate rain in lower Sindh and along the Makran coast on Wednesday and Friday.

The Sindh government imposed Section 144 of the criminal procedure code on all beaches. The provincial local government ministry issued an advisory to the authorities in Karachi, Thatta, Badin and Sujawal to take all precautionary and preparatory measures to avoid any danger to human life and properties.

The last super cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea occurred in June 2007. It was named Gonu.

'Right now, it's highly intense surrounded by winds having speed of up to 250-279km per hour. Luckily, however, it's far away around 750km southwest of Karachi,' said Sardar Sarfaraz of the Met department. He said that since the cyclone had moved further west-northwestward, it was not likely to hit Oman but redirect towards Yemen by Wednesday.

The official said he didn't think that flooding in coastal villages was directly caused by the cyclone since it was far away from the coast. 'There could be multiple factors causing flooding for which we need a detailed scientific study. Immediately, I could only say that it might be caused due to the influence of strong winds creating forceful waves making their way into the low-lying residential areas.'

According to Mr Sarfaraz, the cyclone hasn't caused any damage anywhere so far as it has remained in the open sea, away from the land. Kyaar, he pointed out, could be described as unusual in the sense that it developed in the post-monsoon period (October-November) as historically cyclones of this intensity were reported in the monsoon period.

Mr Sarfaraz rejected 'reports' circulating on social media that more cyclones were building up in the region and said it was premature to make such statements. 'While there is a low pressure area over the east central Arabian Sea, the same location where Kyarr built up, this weather system needs to achieve a certain level of intensity to be called a very severe or super cyclonic storm, which all depends on environmental conditions,' he noted. These environmental conditions included favourable sea surface temperature and vertical wind shear, which Kyarr had received so far, he...