Low pressure area over Bay of Bengal triggers rain in Odisha; Met department advises fishermen not to venture into sea in parts of state

Bhubaneswar: The low pressure over Bay of Bengal intensified into a depression on Tuesday triggering rains in most parts of Odisha, with weathermen forecasting heavy to very heavy rain till 9 August. The depression adjoining coastal Bangladesh and West Bengal lay centred around 160 kilometres southeast of Odisha’s Balasore and about 130 kilometres south-southeast of West Bengal’s Digha, the Meteorological Centre said here.

The low pressure is likely to intensify into a deep depression by Wednesday and move west-northwestwards across the coastal areas of Odisha and West Bengal till 10 August, it said in a special bulletin.

The Met Centre said the depression is likely to cause moderate rain or thundershowers at most places in Odisha till 11 August and heavy to very heavy rain in some areas till 9 August. It has issued “red warning” for Malkangiri, Koraput, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Kalahandi and Puri districts till Wednesday, predicting heavy to very heavy rain in a few places and extremely heavy downpour in other areas of the six districts.

Heavy to very heavy rain is likely to lash a few places in Gajapati, Boudh, Sonepur, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Nayagarh districts, it said. The Met Centre has forecast heavy downpour in some areas in Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Khurda, Angul, Rayagada, Balasore, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts till Wednesday.

Heavy to very heavy rainfall may occur at a few places in Sonepur, Jharsuguda, Angul, Dhenkanal, Kalahandi, Bargarh and Sundargarh districts on Wednesday and Thursday, it said. The weathermen said some areas in Cuttack, Kendrapada, Boudh, Nayagarh, Khurda, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Nabarangpur will receive heavy rain till Thursday.

The Met centre also forecast heavy rain at isolated places in Sundargarh, Bargarh, Keonjhar, Koraput, Nawarangpur and Kalahandi districts on 8 and 9 August. The Met department has advised fishermen not to venture into northwest Bay of Bengal and the coastal areas of Odisha and West Bengal till 10 August.

It has also advised hoisting of Local Cautionary Signal Number Three (LC-III) at all the ports in Odisha.