Yellow Warning: Rain, Thunderstorm With Squall To Hit Odisha Till March 20 Morning

Bhubaneswar: The  India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday forecast moderate thunderstorm activity with lightning, gusty surface wind and fairly widespread rain in Odisha during the next 5 days.

“Due to likely interaction of middle tropospheric westerly trough with lower level easterly, and moisture incursion from Bay of Bengal, meteorological conditions becoming favourable for moderate thunderstorm activity with lightning, gusty surface wind and scattered to fairly widespread rainfall over the districts of Odisha within next 5 days,” the IMD said in its midday bulletin.

People have advised to keep watch on weather and take shelter during the thunderstorm activity to protect from lightning and follow traffic advisories in urban areas. Harvesting of Rabi crops should be regulated judicially, it added.

While the downpour is expected to bring down the day temperature in the state, Boudh recorded the highest of 38.5 degree Celsius on Tuesday followed by Sonepur (38) and Jharsuguda (37.8). The mercury dipped to 35.2 degree Celsius in Bhubaneswar, which had recorded above 38 degree Celsius the previous day.

According to the Centre for Environment and Climate (CEC) of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan, there is probability of rain and thunderstorm accompanied by lightning between March 16 and 19 in coastal and south Odisha while interior districts would also experience the same but at a lesser intensity. It had also forecast thunderstorm accompanied by hail in north and coastal
Odisha between March 16 and 18. It further stated that the day time temperature would drop to 33 degree Celsius in most places in the state from March 16 and the trend would continue till March 21.