Rain or thundershowers lashed many places on Friday over South Interior Karnataka; a few places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam and Rayalaseema; and were isolated over Jharkhand, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana and Coastal Karnataka, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) update said this (Saturday) morning.
Thunderstorms lashed isolated places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rayalaseema, Coastal and South Interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal. A thunderstorm is a storm comprising thunder and lightning usually accompanied with heavy rain, wind, and sometimes hail while thundershower is a short thunderstorm mostly accompanied by heavy rain.
Trough shifting positions
The unstable weather results from a persisting trough (elongated area of low pressure) but constantly shifting position and which on Saturday morning linked the North Kerala coast with the South Gujarat coast. A helpful cyclonic circulation lies over North Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Another trough lies over the South-West Bay of Bengal and adjoining Sri Lanka coast and reaching up to North Tamil Nadu.
Winds blow from an area of higher pressure to that of lower pressure, and moisture-laden winds have been blowing from the nearby seas into the trough in an unusual pattern for February to create turbulence and set up heavy clouds. The area of turbulence seems to have now shifted entirely from parts of Central and West India to the South Peninsula.
European agency outlook
But a European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts outlook for today (Saturday) said that there are still pockets with thunderstorm risk over East-Central India along a narrow corridor from Rourkela, Turumunga, Sambalpur, Rengali, Bolangir, Jeypore, Kirandul, Warangal, Khammam and Nizamabad across the states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The area of intense thunderstorm activity extends from Kavali, Nellore, Tirupati, Chennai (heavy), Bengaluru, Hindupur, Chikkamagaluru, Hunsur, Hanor, Coimbatore, Valparai (heavy), Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore, Muthupet, Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur, Kaveripattinam, Karaikudi, Dindigul, Madurai, Kovilpatti, Thoothukudi, Palayankottai and Nagercoil across the meteorological subdivisions of Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Interior Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.