Cyclone Yaas: Extremely Heavy Rains To Lash Nine Odisha Districts Today

Bhubaneswar: Nine districts of Odisha will receive extremely heavy rainfall on Wednesday under the influence of the very severe cyclonic storm Yaas, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in a special bulletin.

In view of the extremely heavy rainfall, IMD has issued a red warning for Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal and yellow warning for heavy to very heavy rainfall in the four western districts of Angul, Deogarh, Sundargarh and Sambalpur.

The bulletin said that as the cyclonic storm will cross north Odisha and enter neighbouring Jharkhand through Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts early morning on Thursday, a yellow warning has been issued for heavy rainfall in these two districts.

Wind warning

Giving the latest update on the wind speed in the coastal districts, the bulletin said that a gale wind speed of 130-140 kmph with gusting 155 kmph is now prevailing over the northwest Bay of Bengal and along and off north Odisha including Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Bhadrak and Balasore districts and the adjoining West Bengal coast.

It also said that the squally wind speed reaching 100-110 kmph gusting 120 kmph over Jajpur and Mayurbhanj districts, 60-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph over Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar districts, 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph over Khurda, Puri, Angul, Deogarh and Sundargarh districts will prevail till noon today.

Warning for fishermen
As the sea condition will remain phenomenal over the northwest Bay of Bengal along and off the Odisha, West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts and high to very high over the adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal and rough to very rough along and off north Andhra Pradesh coasts till this afternoon, fishermen have been advised not to venture into sea along and off Odisha coast and North Bay of Bengal in the next 24 hours till May 27.