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Severe Cyclone Murasu bears down on India's Andhra Pradesh coast, with landfall due overnight

Andhra Pradesh, India • November 2, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

A powerful cyclone over the Bay of Bengal approaching India's eastern coastline, with dark swirling clouds, rough seas and palm trees bending in strong wind

Editorial illustration generated for Press Pass USA

Severe Cyclone Murasu is racing toward India's Andhra Pradesh coast, with landfall expected between Nellore and Narsapur, close to Ongole, from late Monday night into the early hours of Tuesday, packing sustained winds of 100–110 km/h and gusts up to 120 km/h, the India Meteorological Department said.

The storm intensified into a severe cyclonic storm over the west-central and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal. At 5:30 a.m. local time on Monday it lay about 200 km east-northeast of Chennai, 210 km east-southeast of Nellore and 260 km southeast of Ongole, after skirting Chennai with its outer rain bands on Monday morning. The weather office issued a red-message cyclone warning for the Andhra Pradesh and adjoining north Tamil Nadu coasts, and said the storm would cross the coast as a severe cyclonic storm.

Andhra Pradesh authorities planned to evacuate about 30,000 people, and around 2,000 had already been moved by Monday, according to Prakhar Jain, managing director of the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority. The districts of Nellore, Prakasam, Bapatla, Guntur and Krishna face heavy to extremely heavy rain on Monday, with some locations possibly receiving more than 204 millimetres of rain over Monday and Tuesday. Fishing operations were ordered suspended along the coast.

Ports along the south Andhra Pradesh coast were placed on high alert. The highest warning, Great Danger Signal Number 10, was hoisted at Nizampatnam and Vadarevu, with Number 9 at Machilipatnam and Number 8 at Krishnapatnam. The weather office warned of a storm surge of about 3.2 to 5 feet above the astronomical tide that could inundate low-lying coastal areas around landfall, and a high-wave warning forecast waves of 10 to 16 feet along the East Godavari coast from Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning.

Murasu is the second cyclone to threaten India's eastern coast in less than a week, after Cyclone Arnab killed six people and destroyed dozens of houses and crops. Murasu was expected to be weaker than Arnab, but heavy rain threatened districts well beyond the landfall zone, with the rain band shifting inland toward Rayalaseema and interior Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, and heavy rain also forecast for Telangana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

Sources: India Meteorological Department via The Hindu BusinessLine (Nov 2, 2026); TBS News/AFP (Nov 2, 2026); Asia Daily (Nov 2, 2026); Jagran Josh (Nov 2, 2026).