The Meteorological Centre said that a well-marked low-pressure area (Lopar) over the northwest Bay of Bengal concentrated into a depression and lay over western Odisha and about 30 km southeast of Sambalpur at 5.30 pm. The system is set to weaken into a well-marked Lopar again over Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, it said, adding that the monsoon trough was passing through western and coastal Odisha, according to PTI report.
The Met department also predicted heavy showers across many districts over the next four days, adding that the monsoon trough was passing through the centre of the depression over coastal Odisha.
The weather office said that at least eight weather stations recorded very heavy showers of 116-204 mm, while 44 places were battered by downpour of 65-115 mm over a 24-period till 8.30 am, adding that Kosagumuda in Nabarangpur recorded 161 mm of rain, followed by 160.2 mm in Bhapur in Nayagarh.
Heavy rain lashed Gajapati, Rayagada, Cuttack, Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Koraput districts. Bhubaneswar and Cuttack logged 76 mm and 31 mm of rain respectively, while many areas in Malkangiri district were severely affected as the water level in several rivers rose following incessant rain, leading to important highways and bridges being submerged and villages getting marooned, with the situation getting exacerbated as the Godavari river was also in spate, the report said.
Meanwhile, light to moderate rainfall was witnessed in some parts of neighbouring West Bengal. Kanthi in Purba Medinipur district of Bengal received 41 mm rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30 am of Tuesday, while the seaside resort town of Digha in the same district experienced 29 mm rain during the same period.
According to the Met office, a red alert of extremely heavy rain of over 204 mm has been issued for a few places in Bargarh, Sambalpur, Angul and Keonjhar districts till Wednesday morning, while it put out an orange warning of very heavy rain in Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Deogarh, Angul, Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Bargarh districts on Wednesday.
(With inputs from PTI)
