Gandhinagar: The cyclonic storm VAYU, which is expected to make a landfall on Gujarat coast on June 13, might cause spells of heavy to very heavy torrential rain in parts of coastal Saurashtra region but it was likely to further dealy the onset of southwest monsoon in Gujarat, IMD center Director Jayanta Sarkar said here today.

He said that the storm was likely to make a landfall in the form of a severe cyclonic storm with wind speed of 110 to 120 km per hour gusting up to 135 kmph. It would cause widespread rain in the coastal areas but due to this the normal forward movement of monsoon might be hampered.

Sarkar said that the monsoon had arrived late by almost a week in Kerala from where it enters India. ‘For Gujarat the normal time of arrival of monsoon is third week of June. But due to the cyclone VAYU, it is likely to delayed further,’ he said.

He also informed that due to increasing severity of the approaching cyclone which was almost 600 km south of Veraval, the port warning signal has been raised to level 2 from earlier 1.

DeshGujarat