Comments
The Bay of Bengal is buzzing away furiously with the latest low-pressure area (fifth in the August series) intensifying a round within 12 hours of genesis and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) putting the same under watch for further intensification as a rare monsoon depression, signalling a new peak in monsoon activity.
The IMD located the well-marked low over the North-West Bay of Bengal on Wednesday evening. It is forecast to travel westwards gradually and concentrate into a depression by Thursday, catapulting the monsoon to its most active phase yet this season. As if not enough, the IMD has put out a watch for a successor low, the sixth, to form by August 23, which BusinessLine had hinted earlier.
Clouds take position
Menacing clouds have already taken position all the way along the monsoon trough from the centre of the well-marked low in the Bay towards North-West India – across Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan – and passing through Ganganagar, Delhi, Badaun, Allahabad, and Daltonganj.
The IMD sees widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls over Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Vidarbha during the next 4-5 days. Isolated extremely heavy falls are forecast over Chhattisgarh and East Madhya Pradesh on Thursday; West Madhya Pradesh on Friday and Saturday; East Rajasthan on Saturday; and Gujarat on Saturday and Sunday.
The monsoon trough is active and lies close to its normal position. It may shift southwards into Thursday, becoming even more active, and stay as such during the next five days. There is convergence of strong moist south-westerly winds from the Arabian Sea over plains of Northwest India and Central India.
Widespread rain forecast
Given this, fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls is likely over North-West India including the hill regions till Thursday and decrease thereafter. Isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi on Thursday.
The 24 hours ending Wednesday morning saw extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over East Madhya Pradesh while it was heavy to very heavy over the plains of West Bengal and heavy over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Konkan, Goa, Madhya Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Odisha.
Significant rainfall amounts (in cm) are: Katni-22; Dindori-14; Surat and Digha13 each; Dehradun and Bilaspur -12 each; Mahabaleshwar, Kutch, Diamond Harbour and Chamoli-10 each; Alwar, Rajsamand, Bageshwar, Gwalior and Sagar- 9 each; Matheran, Baran, Sikar, Tonk, Banaskantha, Morbi, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Sirmaur and Paradip-8 each.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.