RANCHI: Spells of thundershowers and overcast skies turned around the weather in Ranchi and several parts of the state on Friday afternoon.
Two spells of rain, which persisted for over 30 minutes respectively, brought back the winter chill in the state capital. Trace rainfall was recorded in
Jamshedpur and
Daltonganj till evening.
In its evening weather bulletin, the Ranchi weather station of the Indian Meteorological Department attributed the change of weather to a cyclonic circulation which had formed over
Jharkhand, north Odisha and adjoining areas of Gangetic
West Bengal.
"The weather will be dry across the state on Saturday. Light thundershowers are expected in isolated places of central, southern and northwestern parts of the state on Sunday," an official from the met department said.
Although no weather warnings were issued on Friday, IMD Ranchi predicted the possibility of moderate showers accompanied by hail across the state on Monday and Tuesday.
The rainy spell was the state's first of the winter for this year. Jharkhand received less than 3mm rain in January, making it the driest winter in recent years. However, in February 2017, the state did not receive any rainfall at all.
"The rain is likely to lower the daytime mercury in Ranchi over the next few days," a weather scientist at the station said. Maximum and minimum temperatures are higher than normal by average of 3° Celsius across the state. Ranchi recorded 29° Celsius while Jamshedpur was close to 39° Celsius on Friday. The minimum mercury, hovered, was 15° Celsius on Thursday.
