A man cycles through a rain-soaked street in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, March 2: An afternoon spell of rain and an accompanying storm poured water on the rising mercury, leaving behind a cool effect.

The twin acts of nature, largely unexpected in the first week of March, brought respite for residents here as the temperature had been hovering around 35°C.

An official at the weather office said that this was the second instance of freak rain in the last 20 days. On February 16 the city also had received around 8 mm of rain, while areas such as Balasore had got 53 mm rain.

However, officials at the meteorological centre in Bhubaneswar said that it was not unusual to rain at this time of the year. The Met office report showed that Bhubaneswar received maximum rain at 27.2 mm, while at other places the rainfall was very low.

An official said that such rain occurred during winter due to mixing up of two different kinds of winds. The formation of a trough line over the landmass was another reason for the rain, he said.

Though the day was clear, in the afternoon the sky got cloudy and it started to rain. As the downpour was heavy, several places in the city got waterlogged. People were not ready for such rain in the end of winter. Not armed with umbrellas, the sudden rain saw people running for cover.

“Who would expect rain in the first week of March? We were not ready and it started raining heavily. But it was a welcome rain indeed,” said Sabyasachi Mishra, a resident of Baramunda.

Met director Sarat Sahu said that it was a normal but temporary phenomenon.

“When the north-west cold wave mixes with the warm south-east wind, which has large moisture content, it condenses and rains. With a rising day temperature and wind assuming speed of around 35 km, it is good enough to trigger a downpour. Besides a trap line formed over Bengal, Jharkhand, Telengana and Odisha region is also responsible for the rain,” said Sahu.

He even said that such situation would continue for the next 48 hours. Besides interior and western Odisha would get some more rain. But there would not be much rain in the coastal areas. The official said that the rain would pull down the temperature, but only marginally.