Key points

  • Severe Cyclonic Storm Murasu began its landfall process at 1am on Tuesday 3 November near Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, the India Meteorological Department said, with sustained winds of 100 to 110 kilometres per hour and gusts up to 120 kilometres per hour.
  • The storm's eye was touching the coast at 4:16am and entering the coast at 5:08am, the department said; by 5:30am the centre was 20 kilometres from Ongole and landfall was expected to take about two more hours to complete.
  • Hundreds of trees were uprooted in Nellore, Prakasam and Bapatla districts and several low-lying areas were inundated, the Indian Express reported, while the electricity department reported no fallen power poles and no disruption to supply in the affected zones at the time of its early-morning update.
  • No deaths had been reported in the sources checked at the time of publication; about 2,000 people had been evacuated on Monday and the state disaster management authority planned to move about 30,000 people in total, its managing director told Reuters.

Severe Cyclonic Storm Murasu has begun coming ashore on India's east coast, bringing heavy rain and gale-force winds to Andhra Pradesh less than a week after Cyclone Arnab struck the same coastline. The India Meteorological Department said the landfall process commenced at 1am on Tuesday 3 November near Ongole, in Prakasam district, with the storm moving north-northwestwards from the west-central Bay of Bengal. Read more: Cyclone Arnab kills three in Andhra Pradesh as storm makes landfall on India's east coast

At the landfall point, the department reported observed maximum sustained winds of 110 to 120 kilometres per hour, The Hindu reported, while its forecast range for the crossing was sustained winds of 100 to 110 kilometres per hour with gusts reaching 120 kilometres per hour. A storm surge of 1.0 to 1.5 metres above the astronomical tide was forecast to inundate low-lying areas of the south coast, with the peak surge expected over Bapatla and parts of Krishna and Prakasam districts, India TV reported, citing the department.

A slow, drawn-out landfall

Landfall for a cyclone is a process, not a moment: it ends only when the whole centre of the storm has crossed the coast. Murasu's has been slow. At 1:30am the centre was about 40 kilometres southeast of Ongole, 60 kilometres northeast of Kavali and 70 kilometres south of Bapatla, the department said, as reported by The Hindu. By about 3am it was about 30 kilometres southeast of Ongole, with the wall cloud — the ring of strongest winds around the eye — moving onto land.

The eye itself was touching the coast at 4:16am, the department said on X, and was entering the coast at 5:08am, with most of the wall cloud already on land. An update received at 5:30am put the centre 20 kilometres from Ongole, 60 kilometres from Bapatla, 70 kilometres from Kavali, 110 kilometres from Nellore and 130 kilometres from Machilipatnam, moving at 9 kilometres per hour over the previous six hours, The Hindu reported — with the landfall process expected to be completed in another two hours, later than the department's first forecast window of 11:30pm on Monday to 4am on Tuesday.

Enhanced night satellite image of Cyclone Murasu approaching southern India on 1 November 2026
Enhanced night satellite image of Cyclone Murasu approaching southern India on 1 November 2026, with Chennai and Visakhapatnam obscured under the storm's outer bands. Photo: NASA / NASA Worldview / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Source file · Licence

The key figures

Key figures
MeasureFigureSource
Landfall process began1am IST, 3 November 2026, near OngoleIndia Meteorological Department
Sustained winds at landfall100 to 110 km/hIndia Meteorological Department
GustsUp to 120 km/hIndia Meteorological Department
Observed maximum sustained winds at landfall point110 to 120 km/hIndia Meteorological Department, via The Hindu
Storm surge forecast1.0 to 1.5 m above astronomical tideIndia Meteorological Department, via India TV
Centre at 5:30am20 km from Ongole, moving 9 km/hIndia Meteorological Department, via The Hindu
People evacuated on MondayAbout 2,000, with about 30,000 planned in totalAndhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, via Reuters
Domestic flights cancelled on MondayAt least 19, across Vijayawada, Tirupati and VisakhapatnamThe Hindu

Damage so far, and the response

Hundreds of trees were uprooted in Nellore, Prakasam and Bapatla districts, the Indian Express reported, and several low-lying areas were inundated as extremely heavy rain fell with the storm. In Vijayawada, continuous rainfall waterlogged major roads including Bandar Road and Polyclinic Road and several areas in One Town, India TV reported. The electricity department reported that no power poles had fallen so far and there was no disruption to power supply anywhere in the affected zones, the Indian Express reported — an early-morning position, not a final damage assessment.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu held a teleconference with district collectors at 3:30am to review the situation, the Indian Express reported, and instructed that people should not come out onto the roads in cyclone-affected areas until all obstructions are cleared — a warning shaped by Cyclone Arnab, after which at least five people died from touching fallen live wires, according to the Indian Express. Naidu has made preventing loss of life the administration's top priority for this storm, India TV reported. The state disaster management authority's managing director, Prakhar Jain, told Reuters on Monday that around 2,000 people had been evacuated and the process was continuing, with plans to move about 30,000 people in total. The department advised people in affected areas to stay indoors, and Andhra Pradesh's disaster helpline is 1070.

What happens next

The department expects the storm to weaken as it moves inland, forecasting that winds along the south coast will fall to 70 to 80 kilometres per hour gusting to 90 by Tuesday morning, and to 40 to 50 gusting to 60 by the evening, according to its fishermen's warning. Heavy spells of rainfall are likely to continue along the south coast over the next 12 hours, India TV reported, citing the department, and the system is then expected to move northwest towards Telangana. Fishermen have been advised not to venture along or off the Andhra coast until the afternoon of 4 November.

Track map of Cyclone Murasu from the Bay of Bengal to the Andhra Pradesh coast
Track map of Cyclone Murasu from the Bay of Bengal to the Andhra Pradesh coast. Map: TheWxResearcher, using Joint Typhoon Warning Center, NOAA and NASA Blue Marble data / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Source file · Licence

Murasu — a name contributed by India meaning "war drum" in Tamil, The Hindu reported — formed as a low-pressure area over the Andaman Sea on 29 October and intensified into a severe cyclonic storm on 1 November as it moved towards the Andhra coast. It is the second cyclone to hit the state in less than a week, after Arnab crossed the coast near Narsapur on 28 October. The open questions now are how far the damage bill runs once the rain stops, and whether the final toll stays at the zero deaths reported so far. Landfall was still in progress at the time of publication; Europe Unfolded will report confirmed updates as they come.

Updates & corrections

Published 3 November 2026.

Landfall was still in progress at publication; this article will be updated when the India Meteorological Department confirms it is complete. No corrections have been made.

Sources

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