Cyclone Biparjoy: Climate minister says conditions supporting system may intensify

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environment Sherry Rehman advised relevant authorities to ensure public safety for communities in coastal areas, warning that environmental conditions supporting a severe cyclonic storm called Biparjoy swirling over Southeast Arabian Sea may intensify further.

“A Severe Cyclonic Storm (SCS) BIPARJOY is reported to be moving towards Pakistan’s coastal areas according to a storm warning by ndmapk,” Rehman tweeted.

“Of ‘Persistent intensity’ it is tracked as slowly moving in north-northeast direction and may drift north-westwards towards Pakistan’s Makran Coast.”

She added that conditions at sea may get very rough accompanied by high tides along the coast.

As per Tropical Storm Risk, the cyclonic storm is growing into cat-3 on Friday, which is likely to tear at a maximum speed between 178 kilometers and 208 kilometers per hour.

However, the storm strength is expected to begin receding on June 10 (Saturday) to cat-2 and likely to remain in cat-2 on Sunday as well before further de-escalating to cat-1 on June 12 and June 13, it is forecast.

The storm has already intensified into a severe cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea, and now lies near latitude 14.8°N and longitude 66.5°E at a distance of about 1,120km south of Karachi, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said on Friday.

“Owing to the shift in upper-level steering winds, there is an uncertainty in the global model’s opinion regarding the track forecast of Biparjoy with some taking it to Oman-Pakistan western coast and others indicating towards Indian Gujarat-Pakistan Sindh coast.”