Bhubaneswar, May 25: Cyclonic storm ‘YAAS’, now centred about 280 km south-south east of Paradip, is expected to cross the Odisha coast at Soro-Bahanaga in Balasore district on Wednesday morning, according to the Centre of Environment and Climate (CEC) of Siksha ‘O’Anusandhan (SOA) here.

The system is likely to move in a north- northwesterly direction and while crossing the coast the wind speed could be around 100 km per hour gusting to 120 km per hour, Dr. Sarat Chandra Sahu, Director of CEC, said.

Landfall could occur any time between midnight and 4 am on Wednesday morning, he said.

Light to moderate rain would be experienced in Bhubaneswar with wind speed reaching 40 km per hour gusting to 50 km per hour by this evening.

Dr. Sahu said the wind speed might vary between 70 km and 100 km per hour in the coastal belt stretching from Jagatsinghpur to Balasore district from this afternoon. Heavy to very heavy rainfall could occur at many places with extremely heavy fall likely at few places in the districts of Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal and Angul from tonight, he said.

The districts of Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Jajpur and Dhenkanal could experience more than 250 mm of precipitation, he said.