Cyclone Ditwah warning: IMD issues alerts for TN and Andhra coasts

FOLLOWING the movement of Cyclone Senyar away from the Indian coastline, a new low-pressure system over the Southwest Bay of Bengal is turning into a cyclonic storm. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned that the system is "very likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm within 12 hours", and once it does, it will be named Cyclone Ditwah.

The IMD said the developing cyclonic storm could potentially impact the coastal regions of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and the southern part of Andhra Pradesh.

According to the IMD, the weather system was consolidating over the southwest Bay of Bengal, the adjacent areas of southeast Sri Lanka, and the Equatorial Indian Ocean.

Earlier, the Met department reported that Cyclone Senyar was situated 850 km southeast of Car Nicobar — the northernmost island of the Nicobar chain — and was expected to diminish into a depression by that evening.

What is Cyclone Ditwah?

In a social media update on platform X on Thursday, the IMD forecast that the deep depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal and the adjoining Sri Lankan coastline was highly likely to continue tracking roughly north-northwestwards and further intensify into a full cyclonic storm within the next 12 hours.

The weather department classifies low-pressure systems in the Indian region based on their maximum sustained wind speeds. A system is designated a cyclonic storm when its maximum sustained three-minute surface winds reach 34 knots or more.

According to the IMD roster, which lists the names of tropical cyclones in the North Indian Ocean, the latest depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal will be named Cyclone ‘Ditwah’ once it achieves cyclonic storm intensity.

What Cyclone Ditwah means?

The name was suggested by Yemen. ‘Ditwah’ is the name of a famous lagoon on the island of Socotra, known for its distinct coastal ecosystem. It is also known as Detwah Lagoon.

“The depression over southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining Sri Lanka coast moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 8 kmph during past 6 hours, intensified into a deep depression and lay centered at 0530 hrs IST of today, the 27th November 2025 over the same region near latitude 6.3°N and longitude 82.4°E, about 150 km east of Hambantota (Sri Lanka) and 170 km south-southeast of Batticaloa (Sri Lanka). It is very likely to continue to move nearly north-northwestwards across the southwest Bay of Bengal & adjoining Sri Lanka and intensify further into a cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours,” IMD said in its X post.

Thereafter, the IMD added that the storm is very likely to maintain its north-northwestward track, moving across the southwest Bay of Bengal and adjacent Sri Lankan coastline towards the northern Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts during the subsequent 48 hours.
Yellow and Orange Alerts

In Tamil Nadu, several districts, including Chennai, Nagapattinam, Thiruvallur and Thanjavur, were put under yellow and orange alerts by the IMD for 27, 28, and 29 November.

The IMD also indicated that the deep depression was highly likely to escalate further into a cyclonic storm within the next three hours.