More Rainfall, Cold Wave To Return As Odisha Govt Issues Important Advisory

Bhubaneswar: Moderate to heavy rainfall lashed parts of Odisha on due to a low-pressure area over Bay of Bengal, disrupting normal life to much extent. Bhubaneswar Regional Meteorological Centre has predicted that the gloomy weather will persist in most places while partly cloudy sky will be seen in the other. What's more concerning is that thunderstorm and rain will lash several northern, coastal and interior districts of Odisha for the next three days.

As per IMD sources, thunderstorm with lightning is very likely to occur and dense fog will prevail at isolated places over many districts of Odisha. Light to moderate rain or thunderstorm is very likely in most parts of the State till February 10. Along with thunderstorm and lightning, some districts are very likely to experience gusty surface winds speed reaching 30-40 kmph, at isolated places on February 7 and 8.

Yellow warning has been issued for many districts including Sundergarh, Jajpur, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Nuapada, Sonepur, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Rayagada.

In view of the forecast, the Odisha Revenue & Disaster Management Department today issued an advisory to Collectors of all districts to monitor and take appropriate steps in view of IMD's thunderstorm and rainfall forecast for the State.

The situation may be closely monitored and appropriate steps should be taken to face any eventuality, stated the advisory. This apart, the government has asked to regulate the movement of vehicles on highways with the help of police and transport officials to prevent any road mishap during dense foggy conditions. Disaster incident/damage, if any, may be reported to the State emergency operation centre immediately for information of the government.

By February 8 and 9, as per the Met forecast, light to moderate showers with one or two intense spells of rain and thundershowers over some districts. The coastal districts of Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Ganjam will experience heavy showers. By February 10, rainfall activity will start reducing but bone-chilling cold wave conditions would return to Odisha after that.

Light to moderate rainfall along with lightning & thunderstorm will lash several northern, coastal and interior districts of #Odisha in the next 24 hours. Yellow warning has been issued for six districts,” informs Duty Officer of Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre, Charan Behera pic.twitter.com/p1J9Tg2zZL

— OTV (@otvnews) February 7, 2020

Somebody, Please Stop The Rains!

'Odisha never wanted a good spell of rain during this time of the year' - needless to say, farmers are now the most helpless lot due to unseasonal and incessant rainfall.

With rains being a rare phenomenon for Odisha during this time of the year, the farmers already dealing with paddy procurement delay are staring at a huge loss as their harvesting paddy stocked at mandis have been exposed to rains.

The farmers of Boudh and several other districts have claimed that unseasonal rains in the past few days have ruined their harvested paddy. "We have stored our paddy at the mandis, and the rains have damaged almost all the stock. If they (mandi owners) go on rejecting the stock, what will we do? We will suffer a huge loss," expressed a farmer.