Cyclonic storm Titli likely to cause heavy rainfall in Odisha in next 48 hours

A depression over Bay of Bengal is likely to grow into a cyclonic storm, named Titli, during the next 48 hours and trigger heavy rainfall across Odisha from Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department warned Monday.

IMD’s additional director general Mrutyunjay Mahapatra said the deep depression formed over Bay of Bengal is likely to turn into a cyclonic storm October 10 morning, which will slowly travel north-westwards towards north Andhra Pradesh and coastal Odisha. From early morning on October 11, wind speed is likely to reach 100 kmph in south and coastal Odisha and north Andhra when the cyclone makes landfall at Odisha coast, he added.

The depression lay centred over east-central Bay of Bengal, at latitude 14 degrees North and longitude 88.8 degrees East, about 720 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha and 690 km southeast of Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh at 8.30 am Monday.

As the sea condition is likely to be rough to very rough over north Andaman Sea and southeast & adjoining east-central Bay of Bengal during the next 24 hours and over central and adjoining North Bay of Bengal between October 8 to 10, the fishermen have been advised not to venture into deep sea areas during this period.

The IMD officials in Bhubaneswar said from October 9, isolated heavy rainfall is likely in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts. From October 10, there would be heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with isolated extremely heavy rainfall very likely in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore.

On October 11, heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with isolated cases of extremely heavy rainfall are very likely to occur in Gajapati, Ganjam, Puri, Kandhamal, Boudh, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak and Balasore.

Odisha government has cancelled leave of employees of Special Relief Commissioner and the State Disaster Management Authority to deal with any situation.