Cyclone Mocha, brewing in the southeast Bay of Bengal, may turn into a strong cyclonic storm and may strike the coastal regions of Bangladesh.
Mostafa Kamal Palash, a PhD researcher on weather and climate at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, shared a Facebook post on Monday, stating that the potential Cyclone Mocha may strike regions including Khulna, Barisal, Chittagong and Cox's Bazar.
Analyzing two weather forecast models, he said in the Facebook post that the European Union's weather forecast model suggested the potential cyclone Mocha may directly hit the Khulna and Barisal divisions after midnight on May 14.
Meanwhile, the American weather forecast model indicates that Cyclone Mocha could make landfall in the Chittagong and Cox's Bazar districts after 6am on the same day, continued Palash.
It is worth mentioning that the European Union's weather forecast model was more accurate in predicting the path of Cyclone Amphan (which struck India's West Bengal on May 20, 2020, with a wind speed of 175 km per hour) than the American weather forecast model, he said in the post.
Both models indicate the possibility of Cyclone Mocha hitting the Bangladesh coast as a very powerful storm, Palash further added.
However, he did not want to disclose the exact intensity of the cyclone and assured to publish a new forecast examining both models later on Monday.