Winter chill over western Maharashtra will return only in December as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast light to moderate rainfall activity over the region this week.
Northern parts of Konkan and Madhya Maharashtra are bracing for some moderate rainfall and thunderstorms till December 2, the IMD said.
The Met department has issued a “yellow” alert for November 30-December 2 over Palghar, Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Aurangabad, Dhule, Nandurbar, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune and Satara districts.
The IMD, on Sunday, also warned of heavy rainfall mainly over south Gujarat and adjoining north Maharashtra regions along with six states in central and north India from Tuesday to December 2.
This will be under the influence of a fresh western disturbance approaching north India, it added.
This week, prevalence of moisture due to interactions between the approaching western disturbances and the prevailing easterly winds will lead to moisture incursion over Maharashtra.
“Associated strong winds and presence of moisture will cause thunderstorms and rainfall over north Madhya Maharashtra and Konkan regions till December 2,” said Anupam Kashyapi, head, weather forecasting division, IMD, Pune.
In view of the developing weather conditions and rain later this week, the Agriculture Meteorology division of the IMD has advised farmers, mainly those cultivating rice and groundnut in Pune and Kolhapur districts, respectively, to complete the harvest work and store the produce in safe places.
So far, Maharashtra has recorded normal rainfall in November.
After a slight drop in the minimum temperatures reported during the week, with Shivajinagar on Sunday recording 13.8 degrees, the week ahead is forecast to be warm. Pune’s day temperature, too, fell and windy conditions made it a cool day on Sunday even as Nagpur (12.4 degrees) remained the coldest city in Maharashtra.
Once again, cloudy sky conditions would return over parts of Pune and neighbourhood areas and prevail till December 2. During this period, the minimum temperatures will stay marginally above normal.
“The minimum temperatures over Pune will fall after December 3,” said Kashyapi. Meanwhile, dry weather will prevail over most of Marathwada and entire Vidarbha this week.
Elaborating on weather conditions forecast in Gujarat, north Maharashtra and other districts, an IMD official said, “A deep trough associated with the passing active western disturbance will interact with the moist easterly winds. As a result, there will be high moisture incursion, causing thunderstorms over Gujarat, north Maharashtra, south Rajasthan, and west Madhya Pradesh till December 2,” an IMD official said.
Junagarh, Gir Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad, Anand, Bharuch, Panchmahal, Dahod, Chhota Udepur, Surat, Tapi, Dang, Navsari and Valsad districts of Gujarat remain on “yellow” alert for Tuesday and “orange” alert for Thursday.
This approaching active western disturbance shall further affect north Konkan, west Madhya Pradesh, east Rajasthan, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday with more severe weather likely over these states on Thursday. Snowfall and rainfall with lightning and thunder will affect Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh on December 1 and 2.
Down south, the Met department has said that only-light intensity rain will prevail over Yanam (Andhra Pradesh), Puducherry and Tamil Nadu till Monday. Even though cyclonic circulation would remain over the Comorin region and Sri Lankan coast, the ongoing wet spell over Tamil Nadu is set to decrease after Monday. In November, Tamil Nadu recorded 124 per cent excess rainfall.
Meanwhile, a fresh low-pressure system is likely to develop over the Andaman Sea by Tuesday. This system is expected to intensify into a depression as it moves west-northwestwards later in the week.
“Under its influence, rainfall over Andaman and Nicobar islands, north coastal Andhra Pradesh and southern Odisha will increase from Friday,” IMD’s latest forecast report said.