Dikhyaa Mohanty 
After the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow warning, the Odisha government put five districts on high alert. The Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) instructed the district administrations to stay ready for any situation.
The IMD’s lunchtime bulletin states that till Wednesday morning, isolated locations in the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, and Mayurbhanj may experience thunderstorms with lightning and strong surface winds of 30 to 40 kmph. A few locations in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjam, Khurda, Puri, Malkangiri, Koraput, and Rayagada may also see light rain or thunderstorms.
A low pressure system that lingers over the southwest Bay of Bengal is thought to be the cause of the weather. According to the weather service, “the system is likely to continue to move eastward and weaken gradually over the next 24 hours.” In the late afternoon, the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack also had light to moderate rain in eight districts, including Balasore, Bhadrak, and Cuttack, along with a warning of thunderstorms and lightning with surface winds gusting to 30 to 40 kmph. Jajpur, Keonjhar, Khurda, Mayurbhanj and Nayagarh – till 7.30 pm.
The warning continues for Puri, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack (including Cuttack city), Mayurbhaj, Khurda (including Bhubaneswar), Nuapada and Bargarh till 9.30 pm. People have been advised to keep a watch on the weather and move to safer places to protect themselves from lightning strike. The IMD has also warned of dense fog at isolated pockets in Jagatsinghpur, Khurda and Puri till Wednesday morning. Dry weather is likely to prevail thereafter across the state, which may also witness a fall in the night temperature by 2-4 degrees during next 3 days.
