The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for Odisha, Chhattisgarh and the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra as a deep depression moves across eastern and central India.
The weather system, currently positioned over north interior Odisha and adjoining Gangetic West Bengal, is moving west-northwestwards at a speed of about 12 kilometres per hour.
The IMD said the depression is likely to track further across north Odisha, south Jharkhand and north Chhattisgarh over the next 24 hours, bringing heavy to very heavy rainfall along its path.
Isolated pockets under the red alert could see extremely heavy rainfall exceeding 204.5 millimetres, raising the risk of flooding, waterlogging and disruption to normal life in the affected areas.
An orange alert has also been issued for several other states, including Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, western Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, where heavy to very heavy rain is expected.
Separately, rain alerts are in force for Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar, with authorities warning of thunderstorms, lightning and strong winds.
The IMD has cautioned residents in hilly regions to watch for landslide risk, and has advised against driving through waterlogged roads in the affected states.
The weather department said it would continue to closely monitor the depression’s trajectory and issue updated forecasts and warnings as the system evolves over the coming days.
In a separate press release issued on July 28, the IMD said monsoon rainfall was likely to be normal to above normal over northwest and central India over the next four to five days, with the monsoon trough expected to stay close to its usual position through the week.
The IMD typically classifies a weather system as a deep depression when sustained wind speeds near its centre reach between 51 and 61 kilometres per hour, one step below a full cyclonic storm in intensity.
(Image: Photo by McKay Savage from London, UK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)
