‘THIS YEAR UNSEASONAL MARCH RAINS HAVE HIT NEWER AREAS’

Mahesh Palawat, vicepresident,meteorology and climate change at private forecasting agency Skymet Weather explains what the increasing frequency of rain in March means

How unusual is this year’s March rainfall?

Usually,Western Disturbance (WD) that brings winter rainfall to India end by February.After that, it starts moving towards upper latitude and does not affect India.But this year,our observation shows, March is going to experience four to six WD events, continuing till the end of the month.We have already experienced two.The other two will arrive on March 24-25 and on March 30-31.

Do you think March is getting wetter in recent years?

No. Rainfall in March has been observed more or less every year.It was experienced consecutively in 2014,2015 and 2016. But the intensity this year is quite high.What’s also unusual this year is that the intense rainfall and thunderstorm extended till eastern and central India.These regions had not experienced rainfall in March in the recent past. It even spread to southern states likeTelangana and

Andhra Pradesh.We expect such intense thunderstorm activities only during the pre-monsoon months of April and June.

What could be the reason for this?

It is a fact that extreme weather events are on the rise. This year, the weather anomalies are occurring even in the absence an El Niño condition,which is neutral till now.This clearly indicates that our seasonal weather is getting disturbed due to climate change.