Bhubaneswar: Moderate to heavy rain lashed many parts of Odisha on Thursday. According to the IMD evening report, Hirakud recorded the highest rainfall at 97 mm, followed by Sambalpur at 94.4 mm. Puri received 16.3 mm, while Bhubaneswar recorded 22 mm.In the last 24 hours, Banki in Cuttack district and Angul town each recorded 210 mm, the highest in the state, the IMD said in its morning report. Manorama Mohanty, head of the regional IMD centre in Bhubaneswar, said rainfall activity is likely to continue for at least two more days under the influence of a low-pressure system that has intensified into a well-marked low. The rainfall is expected to decrease by July 19.She said the rainfall over the past 24 hours has raised the state’s cumulative monsoon rainfall from a 4% surplus to 11%, a jump of seven percentage points. The IMD has issued an orange warning for very heavy rainfall in seven districts on Friday. These are Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Nuapada and Balangir.A yellow warning for heavy rainfall will continue in several districts until July 20. On Friday, the yellow warning covers 20 districts, including Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh, Deogarh, Angul and Dhenkanal.
