Depression formed over Bay of Bengal, rain-soaked Odisha to face more downpour

Bhubaneswar, Sep 8 (PTI) The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday said the well-marked low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal has turned into a depression and Odisha is likely to face heavy rain for the next three days.

The weather office issued a red alert in five districts of the state which is already witnessing rainfall in several parts. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea till September 11.

According to an IMD bulletin, the depression was located at a distance of about 270 km from Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, 210 km from Gopalpur in Odisha and 370 km from Digha in West Bengal.

The weather system is expected to move towards the Odisha-West Bengal coasts and intensify into a deep depression on Monday.

After crossing the coasts between Puri and Digha by noon on Monday, it is likely to move towards Jharkhand and adjoining north Chhattisgarh during the subsequent two days, the IMD said in its evening bulletin.

Under its impact, heavy rainfall lashed several parts of Odisha with Kundra and Boipariguda blocks of Koraput district becoming worst affected.

The low-lying areas in the two blocks have remained under water and crops over acres of land were affected, officials said.

Dighapur of Kundra block has remained cut off as water flows above the connecting road. The authority has opened two gates of Machkund dam to release excess water, they said.

As per IMD’s prediction, heavy to very heavy rain (7 to 20cm) with isolated extremely heavy rainfall (over 20 cm) would occur at isolated places in the districts of Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Cuttack, Dhenkanal on Monday. The weather office has issued a red warning (take action) for these five districts.

An orange warning (be prepared to take action) was issued for Ganjam, Koraput, Kandhamal, Bolangir, Bargarh, Boudh, Sonepur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Sambalpur, Angul, and Nayagarh districts for Monday.

The authorities have issued a yellow warning (be updated) for Gajapati, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, and Bhadrak districts.

The IMD also forecast rain in many districts of the state for Tuesday and Wednesday.

It said that under the influence of the depression, squally weather with strong surface wind speeds reaching 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph is prevailing over the Bay of Bengal and off the Odisha coast.

It is likely to increase to 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph over the same region from Sunday night, and continue till the morning of September 10 and decrease gradually thereafter, the Met office said. PTI BBM NN