Bhubaneswar: The state is likely to witness increased rainfall activity for at least two days as a low-pressure area is likely to form over Bay of Bengal during the next 24 hours under the influence of a cyclonic circulation, according to an India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast on Friday.The state govt has kept all district administrations on alert and issued advisories to take needful steps as required, said an official.Meanwhile, light to moderate rainfall continued at several places in the state during the last 24 hours amid a red warning of extremely heavy rainfall for Mayurbhanj district, along with orange and yellow alerts of heavy to very heavy rain in some districts. Narla in Kalahandi district recorded the highest rainfall of 131mm in the last 24 hours, followed by Madanpur-Rampur in the same district, which received 117mm rain.Manorama Mohanty, head of the regional IMD centre in the city, said two places recorded extremely heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours and 32 more places received heavy rainfall during the period. “A similar rainfall trend would continue in the state for at least two days under the influence of the possible system to be formed over the coastal areas of Gangetic West Bengal and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal,” Mohanty said.An IMD bulletin issued an orange warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places over six districts — Sundergarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj — for Saturday. Besides yellow warning of heavy rainfall is likely to continue in some districts till Aug 13, the IMD bulletin said.It added this warning would persist at isolated places over 11 districts, including flood-affected Balasore and Bhadrak, on Saturday.Meanwhile, river Jalaka in Balasore district and Salandi in Bhadrak were on the rise, inundating some low-lying areas in the catchment bringing flood threat again.Former director of the regional IMD centre Sarat Sahu said rainfall activity would continue in the state at least till Aug 16 or 17, not ruling out chances of further intensification of the system even as IMD did not indicate any such possibility.
