IMD update: Heavy rainfall hovac in 18 states this week, flood-hit Odisha among these

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rainfall over East India today under the influence of a cyclonic circulation that lies over the northeast Bay of Bengal and neighborhood extending up to middle tropospheric levels. The well-marked low-pressure area over East Rajasthan and adjoining northwest Madhya Pradesh is likely to bring widespread light to moderate rainfall with isolated heavy spells over southwest Rajasthan today.

According to the Met department, fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall with isolated heavy showers is very likely over East Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gangetic West Bengal during the next 24 hours.

While the water level in most of the swollen rivers in Odisha dropped below the danger level on Tuesday, authorities are gearing up to face heavy to very heavy rainfall on Wednesday as per the IMD forecast.

"We have retained all rescue and relief teams at their place of deployment in the four flood-hit blocks - Baliapal, Bhograi, Basta and Jaleswar - in view of the IMD's forecast of very heavy rainfall," Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde, the district collector of Balasore, was quoted as saying by PTI.

In Arunachal Pradesh, fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorms is very likely on August 26 and 27. The rainfall pattern is expected to remain similar in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura during the next five days.

The weather forecasting agency has predicted fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorms over Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours and over Himachal Pradesh during the next two days.

Widespread light to moderate rainfall with isolated heavy falls is very likely over coastal and south interior Karnataka on Wednesday, over Tamil Nadu till August 26 and over Kerala and Mahe till August 27.