Odisha is likely to witness a normal rainfall during the upcoming monsoon, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a release on Thursday evening.
In a release, the IMD said the southwest monsoon is likely to touch Kerala coast on June 5. The monsoon is likely to advance over the Andaman Sea in the next three days as low-level cross equatorial monsoon flow has started appearing over south of the Andaman Sea and adjoining south Bay of Bengal, the release said.
It further informed that considerable increase in rainfall has occurred over the Bay of Bengal during the last few days under its influence.
The cross equatorial flow is likely to strengthen and deepen, which in turn would lead to further increase in the rainfall activity over the area.
Most parts of the country including western, southern and northern India, will receive below normal rainfall, while the eastern parts including UP, Bihar, Odisha,
parts of Andhra Pradesh and almost the whole of northeast India will receive normal rainfall.
The IMD had earlier predicted that the country could witness below normal rainfall this year at 95 per cent rainfall due to El-Nino effect which is generally associated with the warming of ocean water.
The seasonal rainfall is likely to be 95 per cent of the long Period average with an error of plus or minus 5 percent.
The rainfall between 90-96 per cent is categorised as below normal and rainfall between 96-104 per cent is termed as normal rainfall.
last year, the Met department had forecast 98 per cent rainfall but in reality the country received over 106 per cent rainfall, sources said.