Depression to trigger rain in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Parts of Odisha received light rains on Friday under the influence of a well-marked low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal which is likely to intensify into a depression in the next 12 hours, the IMD said in the evening. A ‘Yellow’ warning for heavy rainfall was issued for parts of Ganjam, Gajapati, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur till Saturday, it said.

The IMD also forecast a dip in the night temperature by 2-4 degrees Celsius from December 23. Bhubaneswar has been experiencing cloudy sky and light rain since Thursday, which brought down the day temperature by 9 degrees Celsius at 2 pm, officials said.

Meanwhile, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Deoranjan Kumar Singh wrote to the district collectors, stating fishermen should be advised not to venture into the sea along the coast at the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border on Saturday.

He also asked the district collectors of Ganjam, Gajapati, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur to keep administrative machinery ready to deal with any eventuality. The IMD said the well-marked low pressure area over the west-central and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal remained stationary on Friday. The system is likely to move northwards and intensify into a depression over the west-central Bay of Bengal within the next 12 hours. Subsequently, it is expected to move north-northeastwards while maintaining its intensity in the next 24 hours.

On Friday, light to moderate rainfall was recorded in isolated areas across Odisha. Light to moderate rain or thindershowers are likely to occur at many districts of coastal Odisha and at a few places in interior Odisha over the next two days.

Squally weather, with surface wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph and gusting to 60 kmph, is expected to prevail along and off the coasts of North Andhra Pradesh and South Odisha. Shallow fog was reported at isolated areas of Sundargarh and Kalahandi districts in interior Odisha.

The highest maximum temperature of 30.1 degrees Celsius was recorded in Malkangiri while the lowest minimum temperature of 10.6 degrees Celsius was recorded in Sundargarh.