Low pressure over Bay of Bengal to trigger heavy rainfall in Odisha: IMD

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday issued yellow warnings for heavy rainfall owing to a well-marked low pressure over the Bay of Bengal for the districts of Kendarapara, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam, Gajapati, and Koraput.

The forecast stated that the rainfall will begin this morning and is expected to continue throughout the day. In its latest update, the IMD added that the yellow warnings for Ganjam and Gajapti districts will remain valid even on December 25.

In the next 24 hours, light rainfall at isolated places over the districts of Balasore, Boudh, Jajpur, Cuttack, Nayagarh, Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Koraput, and Malkangiri may also be witnessed. As such, several places in coastal Odisha may experience rainfall and overcast conditions on Christmas day.

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Meanwhile, the low-pressure area shifted west-southwestwards and was positioned over the Southwest and Westcentral Bay of Bengal, close to the South Andhra Pradesh-North Tamil Nadu coasts as of Monday.

The current low-pressure-induced rainfall comes less than a week after another well-marked low-pressure turned into a depression on December 21. Under its impact, intermittent rainfall lashed several parts of the state including the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

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Accordingly, in the last spell of rain in Odisha, Ranipur in Nayagarh district experienced the highest rainfall in the state, recording 108.4 mm. Meanwhile, areas such as Jatni, Begunia, and Banpur in Khordha districts received over 70 mm of rainfall.