Cyclone over the Arabian sea could bring more rain to Oman

Muscat: The first cyclonic storm of the season has formed over the Arabian Sea, weather experts announced.

Officials at the National Multi Hazard Early Warning Centre at Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA) said that Oman will not be directly affected by the storm. However, there are chances of rain in Muscat, Batinah and in the mountain areas on Thursday, because of a trough that is passing through the Sultanate.

"The storm is currently situated around 800 km away from Salalah so there is no chance of Oman getting affected by it,” an official said. However, "There are chances of the formation of convective clouds with occurrences of isolated rain and occasional thundershowers over Al-Hajar Mountains and the adjoining Wilayats towards the afternoon,” the official added.

In a storm warning, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said, "The depression over Gulf of Aden moved westwards during the past six hours with a speed of 11 kmph and intensified into a deep depression and lay centered at 0530 hours IST as of today (17 May 2018) over Gulf of Aden; about 430 km east-northeast of Aden (Yemen) and 530 km west-northwest of Socotra Islands.

“It is very likely to further intensify into a cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours. It is very likely to move initially westwards during the first 12 hours and then southwestwards during the following 24 hours.”