Cyclone Arnab set to hit Andhra coast near Yanam on October 28

Developing story: Cyclone Arnab is forecast to hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh, India, near Yanam on the morning of October 28 as a very severe cyclonic storm, with winds of 115 to 125 km/h, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on October 26.

The IMD’s morning bulletin, issued at 8:47 a.m. India Standard Time (03:17 GMT) on Monday, October 26, said a deep depression in the Bay of Bengal had strengthened into a cyclonic storm and taken the name Arnab. It is the first named storm of 2026 in the north Indian Ocean.

The weather office expects Arnab to cross the coast between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam, close to Yanam, a small coastal enclave of the union territory of Puducherry that sits inside Andhra Pradesh. It issued a “red message” cyclone warning for the Andhra Pradesh coast and the adjoining coast of south Odisha.

Where is Cyclone Arnab now?

At 5:30 a.m. IST (00:00 GMT) on October 26, the storm was centered near latitude 15.4°N and longitude 88.9°E over the east-central Bay of Bengal, moving almost due west at about 15 km/h, according to the IMD. That put it about 650 km east-southeast of Visakhapatnam, 730 km east-southeast of Kakinada and 610 km southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha.

By Monday evening, a later IMD update reported by OrissaPOST placed it about 580 km southeast of Gopalpur.

When (India time)	IMD forecast stage	Sustained winds
Oct 26, daytime	Cyclonic storm	65 to 75 km/h, gusts 85
Midnight, Oct 26	Severe cyclonic storm	90 to 100 km/h, gusts 110
Afternoon, Oct 27	Very severe cyclonic storm	115 to 125 km/h, gusts 140
Forenoon, Oct 28	Landfall near Yanam	115 to 125 km/h, gusts 140
Evening, Oct 28	Weakening over land	60 to 70 km/h, gusts 80
Source: IMD bulletins of October 26, 2026, as reported by OrissaPOST and National Herald.

The IMD warned of a storm surge of about 1 to 1.5 meters above the normal tide in low-lying coastal areas at landfall, highest around Kakinada, East Godavari district and Yanam. It forecast heavy to extremely heavy rain over coastal Andhra Pradesh on October 27 and 28, and over Odisha on October 28.

Which districts are on alert?

In Andhra Pradesh, Kakinada and East Godavari are among the coastal districts named in the IMD’s warnings for extremely heavy rain, along with neighboring districts of the north and central coast.

In Odisha, the IMD issued an orange warning for Puri, Gajapati, Ganjam, Rayagada, Koraput and Malkangiri. It expects gale-force winds of 60 to 70 km/h, gusting to 80 km/h, over Odisha’s southernmost districts from early on October 28. OrissaPOST reported that Local Warning Signal No. IV had been raised at Puri and Gopalpur ports.

The state government is focusing on five southern districts: Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput and Malkangiri.

Evacuations and official advice

The Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) said the next three days would be “extremely critical.” Its managing director, Prakhar Jain, urged residents to follow safety precautions and official advisories.

The state has identified about 570,000 people in high-risk coastal and low-lying areas as vulnerable, and evacuations were due to begin on the evening of October 26, according to Outlook India and Reuters. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu reviewed preparations on October 25, and 10 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 11 State Disaster Response Force teams are on standby. More than 4,800 fishing boats have returned to Kakinada and other harbors.

Odisha’s Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said the state “would take no chances” even though landfall is forecast in Andhra Pradesh, and set a “zero-casualty” goal, OrissaPOST reported. The state has 60 teams of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), 17 NDRF teams and 225 fire service teams ready. Of these, 24 ODRAF and 6 NDRF teams had already been sent to the five southern districts by October 25, ETV Bharat reported.

Ministers and senior officers have been assigned to vulnerable districts and told to stay there from October 27 to 29.

Officials in Odisha said people in thatched houses and low-lying areas are being moved to cyclone shelters, and pregnant women close to their due dates are being moved to hospitals. Schools, colleges and childcare centres in the five districts will close for two days. Tourists are barred from hills, waterfalls and dams in those districts.

The IMD has told fishermen not to go into the west-central Bay of Bengal, along and off the Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts, from October 26 to 29. Both states have banned sea fishing.

What happens next: Watch for any shift in the forecast landfall point between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam, the storm’s strength by the afternoon of October 27, and evacuation figures from APSDMA and the Odisha government.

Why was the September storm called Arnab?

Many readers saw “Cyclone Arnab” in headlines a month ago. That system, a deep depression that crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast in late September, never got the name.

The IMD names a storm only when its sustained winds reach 62 km/h, the threshold for a cyclonic storm. The September system peaked as a deep depression, one category lower, so the IMD left it unnamed. Some media and social media accounts used “Arnab” anyway, because it was the next name on the list. The name stayed unused until October 26.

How cyclones in the Bay of Bengal get their names

Storm names in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea come from the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Naming in the region began in 2004.

Each member country contributes names, and the IMD’s regional centre in New Delhi assigns them in a fixed order, column by column. Arnab was proposed by Bangladesh and means “ocean” in Bengali; it follows Ditwah, a name from Yemen used in November 2025. A name is never reused.

• Late September 2026: A Bay of Bengal deep depression is widely mislabelled “Cyclone Arnab”; the IMD does not name it.
• October 26, 2026: The IMD names the new cyclonic storm Arnab.
• Forenoon, October 28, 2026: Forecast landfall near Yanam.

If another storm forms this season, it will be called Murasu, a name from India, according to the WMO list.