Odisha Saw 11 Low-Pressure Areas This Monsoon; Another Brewing Over Bay

Bhubaneswar: With a fresh low-pressure area brewing over Bay of Bengal, Odisha may experience scattered light to moderate rainfall this week, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.

According to IMD’s Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the cyclonic circulation over southeast Bangladesh and its neighbourhood to the North Andaman Sea across the Myanmar coast will intensify into a low pressure near the coast of West Bengal and Odisha around October 4 after slowly moving in west-north-east direction.

“The forecast issued so far has not mentioned about further intensification of the system. Under the influence of the low pressure, only north Odisha is likely to experience rain on Friday,” he said.

More details will emerge once the system forms, he added.

On October 1, Private weather forecaster Skymet said that the likely circulation over Bay of Bengal may not percolate to surface as low pressure area but will keep the monsoon activity live, over states of West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and East Madhya Pradesh. “The weather system will meander over these parts and finally recurve northeastward to affect Bangladesh and Northeast India,” it added.

Meanwhile, the regional centre has issued nowcast warning for seven districts of Odisha till 3.25 pm on Thursday. Light to moderate rain/thundershower may occur in Angul, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Ganjam, Gajapati and Deogarh during this period. People have been advised to keep a watch on the weather and accordingly move to safes places.

There is also thunderstorm with lightning warning for isolated places in Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh, Ganjam, Gajapati, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Kalahandi and Nabarangpur districts till 8.30 am on Friday.

Though there is no weather warning thereafter, light to moderate rain/thundershower may continue at some places in the state till October 9.

Notably, Odisha recorded 11 low-pressure areas this monsoon season which ended on September 30. Among these, two each intensified into depression and deep depression triggering heavy rainfall in the state.

The state received 1,092 mm rain between June 1 and September 30 and the deficit stood at 5 per cent. While Nuapada (+23%) and Malkangiri (+56%) recorded excess rainfall, 24 districts were in normal category. The remaining four districts saw deficit rainfall.