South coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh were put on alert on Monday as a deep depression took shape over southwest Bay of Bengal. Weather officials warned that the depression would intensify into a cyclonic storm - it has already been named ‘Nilam’ - and cross the north Tamil Nadu and the adjoining south AP coast between Nagapattinam and Nellore on the evening or night of October 31.
Though ‘Nilam’ lay more than 500 km to the southeast in the Bay of Bengal on Monday evening, the coas-tal belt of AP will continue to get heavy winds at 50 km per hour, met officials said.
A report from Chennai said that unlike Cyclone Thane, that was more wind-based, ‘Nilam’ would bring more rain. ‘It is currently following the route taken by a weather system on Octo-ber 28, 1991, starting from the central Bay and moving westwards to the coast.