Cyclone Dana completes landfall process: IMD

Bhubaneswar: The landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm Dana was complete on Friday morning and the system took at least eight and half hours to enter the landmass, IMD said.

The IMD in its hourly bulletin said: "The landfall process has been completed." The landfall of 'Dana' started at about 12.05 pm on Thursday night and it took around eight and half hours to end the process. The landfall process was completed at around 8.30 am on Friday, an IMD scientist said.

The severe cyclone storm which hit the landmass at a wind speed of 110 kmph has weakened and has become a cyclonic storm. The cyclone lay centered at about 50 km north-north west of Dhamra and 30 km of northeast of Bhadrak town.

"The maximum sustained wind speed around the centre of the cyclone is about 80 kmph to 90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph," the IMD said. The cyclone is likely to move northwestwards across north Odisha and weaken gradually into a deep depression during the next six hours, the IMD said, adding that the system is under continuous surveillance of the Doppler weather radar at Paradip.