Heavy rainfall predicted for 14 districts in Odisha today

Bhubaneswar: As many as 14 districts of Odisha are likely to receive heavy rainfall today, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

A statement from Met department issued an alert saying heavy thundershowers have been predicted for Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Puri, Nayagarh, Khurda, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri districts, it said.

One or two places in interior Odisha are also likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours even though the cyclonic circulation developed over Bay of Bengal has moved towards North of Chhattisgarh.

Bhubaneswar Met department Director Sarat Chandra Sahu said rainfall continued in the state since last week due to an active south-west monsoon. Several places, which had received less rainfall compared to normal, would get good showers this month.

Rainfall in four districts namely Bolangir, Nuapada, Angul and Jajpur remained between 19 and 39 per cent deficient from that recorded between June 1 and July 3.

Dhenkanal is the only district where rainfall remained severely deficient, to the extent of a 40.8 per cent.