Warning to fishing, Naval community

Disna MUDALIGE

Fishing and Naval communities are further advised to refrain from maritime activities in the Northeastern shallow and deep sea areas as these areas will be very rough with very strong winds and intermittent rain due to cyclone Thane, Meteorology Department duty forecaster Anusha Warnasuriya told the Daily News yesterday.

She said that the cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal was centered about 550 kms Northeast of Trincomalee and 600 kms Northeast of Jaffna by noon yesterday. She said that it was likely to intensify further. It was moving slowly with a speed of 10 kms per hour towards the Northwest from its centre.

She said that as predicted, it would enter the Indian East Coast tomorrow morning. Warnasuriya said that rains may occur in the Jaffna peninsula today or tomorrow when the cyclone is passing closer. She noted that there was no direct threat of the cyclone to the land, but the seas off the coast extending from Mannar to Trincomalee via Jaffna would be affected.

The Meteorology Department said that the situation is being continuously monitored and requested the public to refer to the weather information released by the Department. She said that fairly strong winds and scattered showers may occur in the Northern and North Central provinces today.