Bhubaneswar: With the festival season being hardly a week away, all eyes are up on the skies and the question that rakes up one's mind is will Odisha witness the autumn or rainy or stormy days during the Durga Puja festivities this year?
Reading the mood of weather gods looks more pertinent as the Arabian Sea has seeded a cyclonic storm now, though the best part of this storm-brewing story is the likely cyclonic storm may spare Gujarat and move towards Oman.
However, for Odisha, the forecasts predict an autumn mood of the weather gods during the upcoming festival days.
An analysis of weather indices from US-based Climate Prediction Centre (CPC), IMD, Skymet and INCOIS reveals no long spell of rainy days in Odisha till October 6.
The weather models show the State, especially southern, experiencing a spell of rainfall on September 24 owing to cyclonic circulation near north Andhra Pradesh coast.
Odisha may experience another spell of rain over northern Odisha on September 26-28 owing to a likely low pressure area over northeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining Myanmar coast. The models of Skymet forecast the low pressure induced rain to affect mostly Gangetic West Bengal and Bangladesh, with some fair amount of rainfall over districts in northern Odisha.
As a consequence, most parts of the State will be witnessing autumn days till October 6. This year the Dusshera festival falls on October 8.
However, as the Monsoon withdrawal from Odisha this year, as reported by this website on August 31, will happen anytime during October last week, the perils of depressions cannot be ruled out post the Durga Pujas.
Meanwhile, the rainfall data with the IMD shows Odisha receiving 1,115.1 mm rainfall till September 22 vis-a-vis the average normal rainfall of 1,111.1 mm during the monsoon period of June 1 - September 22. Though the rainfall over Odisha has been normal till date, two districts - Balasore and Gajapati - have recorded deficient rainfall in the State till date.
But the warning is, as per the forecasts made by multiple weather agencies, including IMD and Skymet, districts like Sundergarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Puri and Khurda are to experience lightning activities today.