The week ahead is not expected to bring much rainfall over regions along northwest India.
At least ten states in the northeast, including Bihar, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, will continue to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next three days, officials said. Heightened rainfall activity has also been forecast over east Uttar Pradesh and parts of north West Bengal till July 13.
The monsoon trough presently runs along the foothills of Himalayas, which is causing widespread and intense rain spells over the northeast.
Bihar, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have, so far, reported excess rainfall this season, so much so that there has been a constant flood-like situation prevailing in these states. Between June 1 and 10, rainfall received over east Uttar Pradesh was 66 per cent above normal, whereas in Bihar, the rainfall quantum for the same period was 52 per cent.
“In addition, there are moist southerly winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal that are interacting with the trough and will bring some extremely heavy rainfall along states in the northeast region till July 13,” said an official from the National Weather Forecasting Centre, New Delhi.
Accordingly, an alert has been sounded for Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Uttarakhand and west Uttar Pradesh, mainly for very heavy to extremely heavy rain, particularly on July 11 and 12. Lightning activity, which has claimed over 300 lives in Bihar alone, has been forecast for the coming days as well.
“Moderate to severe thunderstorm and lightning is expected over northwest Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand during the upcoming days,” stated the latest forecast issued by India Meteorological Department.
The 33 per cent rainfall deficient conditions prevailing over Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura are expected to improve in the coming days, Met officials said. All other meteorological sub-divisions in the northeast have recorded normal or above normal rainfall till date.
The week ahead is not expected to bring much rainfall over regions along northwest India. “The rainfall activity will remain subdued till July 17. However, in the third week, it will once again revive over this region,” the official added.
Earlier this week, some record breaking intense rainfall was experienced over coastal districts of Gujarat. Between July 7 and 9, the 24-hour rainfall recorded in some districts were Khambalia – 490mm, Okha – 480mm, Kalavad – 390mm, Kalyanpur – 360mm, and Rajkot and Dwarka – 220mm each.