Heavy shower to improve Odisha's rain deficit position

Several parts of Odisha including state capital Bhubaneswar received heavy rainfall in the last twenty-four hours under the impact of a depression formed in the Bay of Bengal near the state’s coastline.

The system will turn into a deep depression in the next 24 hours which will bring in more rain to the state, the local met office informed.

The change in the weather condition is expected to improve the rainfall deficit position in the state. Despite heavy rain in different districts in the last week of July, the state’s overall rainfall shortage for the month stood at about 20%. More than half of the 30 revenue districts, 18 to be precise, received less than average rainfall in July.

However, the present spell of heavy rain will certainly improve the deficit position, revenue department officials told Deccan Herald on Wednesday. In fact, the downpour in the last 24 hours has already led to flooding in some districts like Gajapati, Malkangiri and Rayagara in southern Odisha.

The local met office through a special bulletin released to the media on Wednesday morning issued a “red warning” indicating heavy to very heavy rainfall and in some places extremely heavy rainfall for districts like Gajapati, Ganjam, Koraput, Nowrangpur in south Odisha and Sonepur, Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Balangir, Nuapara and Boudh in western Odisha during the next 24 hours.

Heavy rainfall has also been predicted for coastal districts like Puri, Nayagarh, Khurda, Jagatsinghur, Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Angul. Capital city Bhubaneswar is part of Khurda district.

Keeping in mind the warning issued by the Met department, the office of the special relief commissioner(SRC) has already released an advisory for the Collectors of all the districts in the state to remain on high alert and initiate steps to handle the rain-related situation.