The low-pressure area over the southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining Equatorial Indian Ocean, which has intensified into a well-marked low that is likely to morph into a cyclone, says the Met office.
Currently lying over the Southeast Bay and Andaman Sea, the low is expected to intensify further into a depression and move in a north-northeasterly direction.
Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts the low-pressure brewing in the Bay of Bengal will become well marked low by Sunday.
It is expected to develop into cyclone ‘Asani’ by Monday, move along and off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and hit the Bangladesh and Myanmar coasts by Tuesday.
“The current month is a month of storms,” Meteorologist Abdul Hamid Miah told Bangla Tribune.
He reiterated the prediction that the depression could develop into a fully-fledged storm.
The IMD also predicts heavy to very heavy rainfall in a few places over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with isolated extremely heavy rainfall over the Nicobar Islands, reports the Hindustan Times.
The Anadaman and Nicobar Islands Administration issued an advisory for fishermen appealing to them not to venture into the sea during the period of the cyclone from March 19-22, according to NDTV.
The weather is expected to remain dry over Bangladesh while a mild heat wave sweeps over Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna divisions and the districts of Rangamati, Chandpur, Feni, Sylhet, Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Nilphamari and Patuakhali and it may continue, the Met office said in its forecast.