Bhubaneswar: Already battered by heavy downpour, Odisha is likely to witness extremely heavy rain in several districts over the next three days as a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal is moving towards the coast, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday.
The deep depression was located around 70 km east-southeast of Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, 150 km south of Gopalpur, 230 km south-southwest of Puri and 150 km east-northeast of Visakhapatnam in the morning.
The IMD said the weather system is very likely to move west-north-westwards and cross the North Andhra Pradesh-South Odisha coasts between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur, close to Kalingapatnam, by Wednesday night as a deep depression.
The weather agency has issued red, orange and yellow warnings for several districts of Odisha for Wednesday and the subsequent two days.
A red warning has been issued for Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri on Wednesday, forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at one or two locations.
Similarly, an orange warning has been issued for Nuapada, Balangir, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Gajapati and Ganjam districts for the day. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely at some places in these districts.
The IMD has forecast heavy rainfall in Baleshwar, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Kataka, Baragada, Anugola, Dhenkanal, Kendujhar, Mayurbhanj, Subarnapur, Boudh, Puri, Khordha and Nayagada.
In view of the deep depression and associated adverse weather, IMD has advised people in the red warning districts to avoid movement in low-lying and vulnerable areas and has asked fishermen not to venture into the sea along the South Odisha and North Andhra coasts.
According to official data, several parts of Odisha received heavy to very heavy rainfall in the past 24 hours.
Simliguda in Koraput district recorded the highest rainfall of 230 mm, followed by Jeypore with 161.6 mm and Gunupur in Rayagada district with 160 mm.
Other significant amounts included Mohana in Gajapati (145 mm), Boriguma in Koraput (138.2 mm), Tentulikhunti in Nabarangapur (138 mm), and Nandahandi in the same district (128 mm).Nandapur, Koraput town, Chhatrapur in Ganjam,