A woman walks down a rain-drenched road in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

A well-marked low pressure, formed over the west-central parts of the Bay of Bengal, has concentrated into a deep depression and lay centred over northwest and adjoining west-central parts of the sea, around 200km south of Puri.
While the depression would lead to monsoon rain over all the districts of the state and move further inland, the local Met centre predicted shower across the state for next three days with heavy rain in the southern and coastal districts for the next 24 hours.

Sarat Chandra Sahu, director of the local meteorological centre, said the low-pressure system would move towards northwest and cross the state coast between Gopalpur and Puri by tonight.

Sahu said that when the system passed over the state, strong and squally surface wind from northeast, with speed reaching 45 to 65kmph, would occur along the state coast. Fishermen were also warned not to venture into the sea. “Heavy to very heavy rain would occur at several places at this time. There are chances of several place getting severe rainfall up to 250mm,” said Sahu.

He said the monsoon had entered the state on June 13, and by June 14, it had already touched several districts, while some central and western districts were left out. Because of this depression, most districts would get rainfall.
However, severe rainfall for the past two days has already flooded many parts of Malkangiri district. Several places have been waterlogged. Communication has been disrupted in the area with roads being submerged under floodwater. Korukunda block in the district has been the worst affected with all roads connecting to the block remain waterlogged. With the forecast of heavy rain, people in the district are in worry.

A Met official said the district had received 183mm rain in the past two days.

Text by Sandip Bal
Picture by Ashwinee Pati