BHUBANESWAR: A fresh low pressure area is likely to form over northwest Bay of Bengal off Odisha-West Bengal coasts within 48 hours and trigger heavy to very heavy rainfall in parts of the state for the next two days, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday. Under its impact, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rain (64.5 mm to 204.4 mm), thunderstorm, lightning and gusty surface wind speeds reaching 30 kmph to 40 kmph on Monday, the national weather body informed. Six other districts - Keonjhar, Mayurbh a n j , Ba l a s o r e , Bhadrak, Jajpur and Cuttack may experience heavy rainfall (64.5 mm to 115.5 mm) in the next 24 hours.
On Tuesday, heavy to very heavy rain is expected in Kandhamal and Gajapati, while districts of Ganjam, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar will also witness heavy downpour. The Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre informed that a few places in the state will continue to experience heavy rainfall in the next five days but the intensity of the fresh weather system will likely reduce from Wednesday, the day Ganesh Chaturthi will be celebrated.
Director of Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre Manorama Mohanty said the anticipated low pressure will have maximum impact in the next two days. “However, as the southwest monsoon is in active phase, many places in the state are likely to experience light to moderate rainfall or thundershower activity till Saturday,” she added.
In view of the situation, the regional met office has warned fishermen against venturing into the sea along and off Odisha coasts between Tuesday and Thursday. Meanwhile, under the influence of the low pressure which had formed recently, the state recorded large excess rainfall of 120 per cent in the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Sunday. Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Jharsuguda which received maximum showers during the period recorded 49.1 mm, 40.6 mm and 37.5 mm rains respectively.