Untimely heavy rains in several districts across the state created havaoc by causing extensive damage to crops over the last two days. The meteorological department forecasted widespread rain or thundershowers due to an upper air cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal in the next 24 hours in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. Loss assessment by the government is still going on.

Standing paddy crop suffered extensive damage in East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts while harvested chilli that was ready for sale got damaged in Khammam district. In Krishna district, chilli, maize and mango suffered damage while in districts like Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar, Warangal and Anantapur, standing Rabi crops were hit. Coal production in the opencast mines in the Kothagudem area of Khammam district was also hampered because of rain. Low lying areas in several districts were flooded, affecting traffic and power supply. The port town of Kakinada has been receiving a heavy downpour since morning. Heavy rain was also reported from Nellore.

According to preliminary estimates in Khammam district,  about 10,000 acres of paddy crop was damaged, chilli damaged in an extent of more than 12,000 acres and maize in an extent of 4,000 acres. Power supply had also been disrupted for more than 12 hours across the district due to heavy winds. In Krishna district, unprecedented rains damaged paddy, mango, maize, chillies and tobacco crops causing heavy loss to the farmers. Paddy is cultivated in nearly 1 lakh acres during this rabi season. The crop is in the harvesting stage while the next two weeks are very crucial. The farmers are worried that the paddy quality will deteriorate drastically with the soaking of harvested crop. In East Godavari district, nearly 30 per cent of paddy crop (around 5.50 lakh acres) was damaged due to the rains over the past two days.

According to the Cyclone Warning Centre at Visakhapatnam, an upper air trough lies over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and neighbourhood. Under its influence rains or thundershowers may occur at many places over coastal AP in the next 24 hours.