Cyclone "sidr" is near

Slow moving giant is getting very close to land, it's forecasted to make landfall during the next 36hrs over the border between India(west bengal) and Bangladesh.
Now "sidr" is moving straight North after all that small Zig-Zags.
JTWC have updated their earlier advisory giving the 1200 hrs, GMT, status for this Category 4 hurricane. The eye of Sidr was about 560 miles (900 kms) south of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Highest sustained winds about it were reckoned to be 130 knots, or 240 kmh, which is not far below the threshold to Category 5 hurricane status.
Sidr drifted northward at 7 knots, or 13 kmh.
I cannot overstate that this is a highly dangerous storm posing a major threat wherever it makes landfall. And latest numerical forecasts seem to have narrowed in on the western half of Bangladesh, a shore which is low-lying and riven with many openings and channels. And the western shore of Bangladesh is the forecast landfall of the JTWC. Timing is for sometime between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon, local time.
Tidal flooding, far and away the greatest threat to life and limb stemming from SIdr, will hinge upon storm strength at the time of landfall. A Category 4 landfall could be catastrophic, although substantial weaken ahead of landfall seems likely. A Category 1 storm would be serious and damaging, but by orders of magnitude less that of a Category 3 or Category 4 storm.
Here is the latest Infrared pic from JTWC

In my next blog i'll try and post some news analysis from that part of the world.