Cyclone Murasu is headed for the Andhra Pradesh coast, and it is arriving barely a week after Cyclone Arnab battered the state. The India Meteorological Department said on Sunday, November 1, 2026, that the storm is likely to cross the south coast between Nellore and Narsapur on the night of November 2-3 as a severe cyclonic storm.

Winds of 100 to 110 kmph, gusting to 120 kmph, are expected at landfall. That is a fast, violent system arriving on a coast that has not finished counting the damage from its last visitor.

The storm started as a deep depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal early on Sunday. Later in the day it strengthened into cyclonic storm Murasu, the IMD said from Amaravati. The name comes from India’s list and means war drum in Tamil, and it could not be a more fitting label for what the coast is now bracing for.

Forecasters expect it to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm by the morning of November 2. At 11.30 a.m. on Sunday, the storm was moving west-northwestwards toward the Andhra Pradesh coast. It was centred over the southwest and west-central Bay of Bengal, about 560 km east-southeast of Chennai, 660 km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam, 630 km east-southeast of Nellore, 640 km southeast of Machilipatnam and 680 km east-southeast of Ongole.

The first landfall estimate points to Bapatla, somewhere between 11.30 p.m. on November 2 and 4 a.m. on November 3. That point is not locked in. Weather experts are tracking every shift in the storm’s movement because the landfall location may change.

Stay tuned to IMD for the latest updates and weather warnings.

Arnab still hangs over the state

Cyclone Arnab crossed the coast near Narsapur in West Godavari district on October 28, with gusts reaching 150 kmph. The storm killed five people and submerged crops on more than 3.5 lakh hectares. It damaged about 2,425 km of roads and brought down some 15,000 electric poles.

The state government puts its losses from Arnab at ₹4,600 crore. The state has barely begun to recover, and now officials have little time to prepare for the next one. Murasu is not a distant threat that might fizzle out. It is a second blow arriving before the first has been fully repaired.

Arnab hit the northern parts of Andhra Pradesh hardest. This time, central and south coastal Andhra Pradesh are likely to bear the brunt. That shift means communities that were spared the worst of the last storm now face the most direct path of this one.

Red alert across five districts

A red alert for November 2 is in place for the districts of Krishna, Guntur, Bapatla, Prakasam and SPSR Nellore. Extremely heavy rain is likely in these areas. Red alerts are the highest warning level the state issues, and they signal that residents should treat the forecast as an immediate danger rather than a passing concern.

The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rain over coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Telangana on November 2 and 3. Extremely heavy rain is likely at isolated places in coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam. Gusty winds of 80 to 90 kmph are expected along the coast on both days, which means rain and wind will hit together.

The state’s Disaster Management Authority has shared possible paths for the storm, projected by different weather models. Those tracks spread across several outcomes, and the final landfall point depends on which of them the storm follows.

Why Telangana is on alert too

The system is likely to move toward Telangana after landfall. Because of that, the districts bordering the state have been placed on red alert for November 3. Residents in Telangana’s border districts should not assume the danger ends once the storm reaches the Andhra coast. The rain and wind can travel inland with the system.

The IMD’s forecast for heavy to very heavy rain over Telangana on November 2 and 3 adds to that concern. A storm that begins on the coast can keep pushing its effects across state lines, and officials in both states are now watching the same weather system.

The chief minister changes his plans

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has cancelled his visit to Delhi planned for Monday because of the cyclone. The Chief Minister’s Office said so in a post on X. The same CMO post said the chief minister reviewed relief measures for the Arnab storm.

That decision tells you how seriously the state government is treating the threat. A chief minister who would normally be in the national capital is staying home to manage the response to a storm that has not yet made landfall.

The Andhra Pradesh cyclone is a story about timing. The storm is expected to make landfall in the middle of the night, when many people are asleep, and it arrives while the state is still digging out from Arnab. Every hour of warning matters, and every change in the forecast track can alter who gets hit hardest.

Watch the IMD bulletins closely over the next 24 hours. The landfall point between Nellore and Narsapur, the timing around midnight on November 2 and early November 3, and the red alert districts are the details that will decide how this storm is remembered.