Cyclone Senyar: Met office predicts delayed arrival of winter in south Bengal

Winter’s arrival in south Bengal and Kolkata now hangs in the balance, with the Met office on Sunday warning that the season’s first real chill may be delayed — or even disrupted — by a brewing storm over the Bay of Bengal. Cyclone Senyar, likely to take shape later this week, has emerged as the great unanswered question hovering over Bengal’s skies.

According to the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore, a low-pressure system has already formed over the Bay and is expected to intensify into a depression by 24 November, before strengthening further into a cyclonic storm around 26 November. Christened Senyar by the United Arab Emirates, the system would be the second post-monsoon cyclone in the Bay this year, following Cyclone Montha, which made landfall near Kakinada on 28 October.

For now, meteorologists are watching the storm’s evolution with caution — and a fair measure of uncertainty. Its path remains an enigma. Should Senyar curve towards the Bengal–Odisha coastline, it could exert a direct influence on the region’s weather, lifting temperatures and delaying the long-awaited onset of winter.

“If the system moves toward the Bengal or Odisha coast, it will directly affect the weather here by pushing temperatures up,” a Met department official said. “If it takes another route, the impact will be indirect — temperatures may rise, but the effect won’t linger as long.”

The next 48 hours, officials said, will be decisive. Once the system strengthens, forecasters expect a clearer picture of its trajectory and its potential to disturb Bengal’s seasonal rhythm.

Meanwhile, the sea has turned forbidding. Fishermen have been cautioned against venturing into the southwest Bay of Bengal until 25 November, and into the southeast Bay until 28 November, as the ocean stirs under the growing influence of the developing storm.

With IANS inputs