Cyclone: Heavy to very heavy rainfall alert for these Odisha districts

Bhubaneswar: The Regional Meteorological Centre of IMD predicted severe rainfall for several districts in Odisha due to a possible cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal.

As per the IMD, heavy rainfall is likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, and Ganjam on December 4.

The weathermen issued orange warning l (7 to 20cm rainfall) for Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, and Ganjam districts on December 5. The yellow warning has been issued for one or two places over the districts of Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, and Puri during the period.

Further, Heavy rainfall (7 to 11cm) is very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Nayagarh, Khordha, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kandhamal and Rayagada during December 6 to 7.

As per the IMD bulletin, the cyclonic storm is likely to form over southwest Bay of Bengal tomorrow. Thereafter, it would move northwestwards and reach westcentral Bay of Bengal off south Andhra Pradesh and adjoining north Tamil Nadu coasts by 4th December forenoon. Thereafter, it would move nearly northwards almost parallel and close to south Andhra Pradesh coasts and cross South Andhra Pradesh coasts between Nellore and Machilipatnam during forenoon of 5th December as a Cyclonic Storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 80-90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph.

Wind warning: Squally wind speed reaching 35-45 kmph gusting to 55 kmph likely from 4th December evening along and off Odisha coast (Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, and Jagatsinghpur), likely to gradually increase becoming 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph from 5th December evening for subsequent 12 hours. It would gradually decrease thereafter. Also, strong surface wind speed reaching 30-40 kmph gusting to 50 kmph likely over Malkangiri, Koraput and Rayagada districts of Odisha on 5th December.