Deep depression likely to bring heavy rain

A low-pressure area is set to form over the Andaman Sea, which will intensify into a deep depression and reach the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast on September 23 morning, the weather department said on Saturday and warned of thunderstorms and strong winds under its influence.

The Odisha government has put 20 coastal and southern districts on alert and asked 10 other district collectors to maintain vigil. “We have asked district collectors to remain alert and do the needful, keeping in view the weather forecast,” Odisha’s Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said, and asserted the State government was prepared to deal with any situation and urged people not to panic over rumours of a possible cyclone. “Only believe government agencies like the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which has so far forecast the possibility of a deep depression formation off the State’s coast,” he said.

The IMD predicted that under the influence of a cyclonic circulation over the north Andaman Sea, a low-pressure area is very likely to form over the same region around Saturday evening. “The possible low-pressure area is very likely to move west-northwestwards and intensify gradually into a depression over east-central Bay of Bengal on September 21 and into a deep depression over west-central Bay of Bengal on September 22.”

It said the system is very likely to reach near the south Odisha-north Andhra Pradesh coasts around the morning of September 23. According to the weather department, a deep depression is a weather system that is at a more intense stage of a low-pressure system and typically precedes the formation of a cyclonic storm.

The weather department advised fisherfolk not to venture into the Bay of Bengal from September 21 to 23. The Meteorological Centre here issued an orange warning for thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty surface winds in Kendujhar, Mayurbhanj, Kandhamala, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Gajapati and Ganjam districts till Sunday morning. It also issued a yellow warning for thunderstorms and winds gusting up to 30 to 40 kmph in Baleshwar, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghapur, Kataka, Dhenkanal, Puri, Khordha, and Nayagada districts.