Showers to continue till month end

Ranchi: Jharkhand will continue to receive light to moderate showers till August 31, the Ranchi office of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Thursday.
In its afternoon weather bulletin, IMD (Ranchi) said Khunti’s Torpa received the highest amount of rainfall in the past 24 hours, measuring 79.2mm on the rain gauge. Simdega received 60mm rain while Kuru in Lohardaga received 50mm rain. Gumla, Daltonganj and Garhwa received 30mm rain each while Lohardaga, Hazaribag, Deoghar and Dhanbad recorded 20mm each rain. Ranchi, Bokaro, Jamshedpur and Kodema recorded 10mm rain each.
“The well-marked low pressure is lying over southwest Jharkhand and its neighbourhood. In the next 48 hours, it will move westwards and its effect over Jharkhand will gradually wean,” Abhishek Anand, scientist at IMD (Ranchi), said.
The weather office said monsoon will remain normal in the state between August 28 and August 31 and under its effect, light to moderate showers will be experienced in most parts of Jharkhand.
Jharkhand, which remained in the rainfall deficit zone in the last couple of years, has been receiving bountiful showers this year. From June 1 to Thursday, Jharkhand received 743.7mm rain, which is 6% less than its normal average of 787.5mm. IMD, Ranchi said eight districts have received excess rains so far, while five districts have a deficit of 19% or more. Palamu has received 35% excess rains than its normal average, the highest in the state, while Gumla has the maximum deficit (49%).
Ranchi, which has received 775.4mm rains, has a deficit of 4%. However, the continuous rain has pushed the reservoirs across the state capital to its optimum capacity. On Thursday, Gonda Dam officials released water from its three gates as the reservoir’s water level touched the 28ft-mark.
Meanwhile, a team of NDRF divers fished out the corpse of a 19-year-old Niraj Tirkey, who fell into a pond in Tupudana area on the outskirts of Ranchi. Tirkey, a resident of Morhabadi, had gone to Tupudana with his friends on Wednesday evening and drowned after slipping into the pond, which is made out of an abandoned mine.