It was Puri, not Gopalpur, where wind speed of Phailin was measured to be the highest.
Nearly 48 hours after the severe cyclonic storm passed through Odisha, Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre has come out with the list of prominent places of Odisha where wind with varied degrees left behind a trail of destruction.
Coastal town of Puri had experienced the sustained wind with speed constantly going over 200 km per hour from 8 p.m. on October 12 to early hours of October 13. The wind speed in Puri clocked 120 knots (223.2 km per hour) at 9 p.m. on Saturday evening.
But at Gopalpur, the wind speed peaked on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. It had touched 115 knots or 213.9 km per hour at 00 GMT on Sunday (October 13).
“Our forecast was right on the target during advancement of Phailin towards Odisha. The wind speed remained in the range what we had updated since Friday morning till the cyclone entered landmass,” said S. C. Sahu, Director of Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre, told The Hindu here on Tuesday.
With regards to Puri getting higher wind speed, Dr. Sahu said in cyclonic system, wind blows in anti-clock wise direction and as Puri is in right forward sector of Gopalpur, wind speed was measured to be more.
Port town of Paradip where high alert was sounded in view of Phailin, 65 knots (120.9 km per hour) was recorded at 10 p.m. on Saturday. Similarly, the Bhubaneswar, the capital city, received 40 knots (75 kmph) on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.
Chandbali (111.6 kmph ) and Balasore (83.7 kmph) were other locations that experienced the impact of Phailin.
When asked if Puri recorded the highest wind speed, why many parts of Ganjam district bore the brunt of Phailin, Dr. Sahu said it was probably because wind speed could be measured at Gopalpur due to installation of High Wind Speed Recorder, the speed could have been higher in hinterland of Berhampur.
It was not the wind that created havoc in several pockets. Heavy rain pounded coastal and interior districts of the State.
Analysis by Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre shows many places received rainfall in excess by 3000 per cent from October 12 and 14 under the impact of Phailin. Mayurbhanj recorded 253 mm rain fall during the period that caused flash flood in district headquarter town or Baripada where flood is a rare phenomenon. Similarly, Nayagarh district had recorded 215.1 mm rainfall against normal 16.4 mm during the 48 hours. Puri and Khurda district followed closely with 205.3 mm and 202.4 mm rainfall respectively during the period.
If deviation of rainfall is taken into account, Cuttack got 191.3 mm rainfall against normal 5.5 mm rainfall recording deviation of 3378 per cent. The departure from normal rainfall was starkly higher in case of Supbarnapur (2454 per cent), Jajpur (2502 per cent), Mayurbhanj (1957 per cent) and Sambalpur (1632 per cent.)
