Odisha likely to be lashed by heavy rains this weekend

Rain-battered Odisha is likely to be lashed by heavy downpours till this weekend with a low pressure set to shape up over the Bay of Bengal, the weatherman said.

While rain and thundershower is likely to occur most places over north and south Odisha, heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at some places over northern region and Puri and Khordha districts, the Met office here said.

Moreover, a low pressure area is likely to form over north Bay of Bengal & neighbourhood around September 6 which may trigger heavy to very heavy rainfall in several areas till the end of this week, it said.

 

Most parts of the state have already been battered by widespread rainfall for over a month owing to the formation of a series of low pressure in the region.

The Met office said heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to pound some places in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Cuttack, Keonjhar, and Mayurbhanj districts in the next 24 hours.

It also warned of heavy rainfall at one or two places over Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Angul, Puri and Khurda districts in the next 24 hours.

The Special Relief Commissioner's (SRC) office said in a statement that average rainfall of the state recorded in the past 24 hours is 2.6 mm. Altogether 23 districts have received sporadic rainfall, whereas seven districts - Bhadrak, Cuttack, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and Nuapada have not received any rainfall during the period.

Only Basta block in Balasore district has recorded rainfall of more than 50 mm.

With this, the cumulative average rainfall in Odisha from June 1 till date is a surplus of 11.1 per cent over the long term average rainfall.

Eight districts have received surplus rainfall of more than 19 per cent whereas 22 districts have received normal rainfall (+19% to -19%) during the period, the SRC statement said.