Heavy rain likely in central India
NEWDELHI:THE monsoon is likely to be very active over northwest and central India over the next two weeks with high chances of extremely heavy rains (over 20 cm) in parts of Gujarat and eastern Rajasthan, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday.
Unlike in July, the monsoon has been active in the first half of this month with the country receiving 13% excess rain from August 6 to 12.
IMD said 12% of 685 districts have got large excess rains (60% excess or more), 17% have recorded excess rains (20 to 59% excess), while 42% are in normal (19% deficient to 19% excess) and 26% in deficient (20 to 59% deficient) and 3% in large defilarge cient category (more than 60% deficiency) since the monsoon season began on June 1.
Above normal monsoon rains are expected in August and September because of several consecutive low-pressure areas forming over the Bay of Bengal. But chances of flooding and extremely heavy rain are high in Gujarat and Rajasthan over the weekend and coming week.
All districts of Gujarat recorded large excess rains except Gandhinagar on Thursday.
Many districts of eastern Rajasthan have also recorded excess rains.
The low-pressure area over north coastal Odisha is likely to move west-northwestwards to north Madhya Pradesh during the next 2-3 days.
Another low-pressure area is likely to form over northwest Bay of Bengal on August 19.
“Monsoon trough likely to shift southwards and remain active. The convergence of strong southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea and easterlies from the Bay of Bengal at lower levels very likely over northwest and central India. Southwest monsoon is very likely to be in inactive phase with above -normal rainfall activity over central India, northern parts of south Peninsular India and most parts of plains of northwest India,” an IMD statement said.