Bhubaneswar: The low-pressure area over the Northwest Bay of Bengal (BoB) intensified on Tuesday morning and is expected to become more marked in the next 24 hours. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for several districts of Odisha, warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty surface winds reaching 30-40 km/h.
According to the IMD, the low-pressure system is likely to move west-northwestwards across Odisha over the next two days. The red warning covers the districts of Deogarh, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, and Jharsuguda, where scattered heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy showers is expected. Thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and strong surface winds are also forecast in these areas.
An orange alert has been issued for Puri, Khordha, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Angul, Cuttack, Koraput, and Nabarangpur, where heavy to very heavy rain and thunderstorms with gusty winds are anticipated at one or two places. Meanwhile, the districts of Bolangir, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Boudh, Sonepur, Bargarh, and Malkangiri remain under a yellow warning for heavy rain and thunderstorms.
The IMD further cautioned that thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds of 30-40 km/h are likely at isolated places across Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, and Rayagada within the next 24 hours.
Residents are advised to remain vigilant and take precautionary measures to mitigate the impact of adverse weather conditions. The warnings are expected to remain in effect until September 7.
