Odisha’s Koraput district witnesses 5,922 lightning strikes in 1 and half hours

Bhubaneswar: Koraput witnessed 5,922 lightning strikes in one and half hours, after a sudden change in weather condition at around 2 pm today. Lightning that occurred at different places of the district was more than all-time highest in Odisha, ‘Damini’ lightning alert app of the Central government said.

The lightning was reported mostly from Boipariguda, Jeypore, Koraput, Nandapur, Semiliguda and Lamataput areas. Earlier, the State had an all-time record of over 5,000 lightning occurring in a particular region in 30 minutes. About 3,762 lightning strikes took place on Thursday and also occurred around 2,573 times in a particular area of Koraput on Friday, the lightning alert app ‘Damini’ revealed.

A mid-day bulletin of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) regional centre here previously issued a Yellow Warning in this regard that read, “Thunderstorm with lightening very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Balasore, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Angul, Dhenkanal, Malkangiri, Koraput and Rayagada.”

Notably, light to moderate rain or thunderstorm is very likely to occur at a few places over the districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, and Mayurbhanj and at one or two places over the rest districts of Odisha, forecasted with validity from 0830 hrs IST of 09.04.2023 to 0830 hrs IST of 10.04.2023.

Two separate incidents of the lightning strike took as many as four lives including three women today in Karanjia and Soro localities of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts, respectively.