Early monsoon after two decades in Prayagraj surprises weather experts
PRAYAGRAJ: The heavy rainfall in the entire northern part of the state for the past 24-hours has baffled the weather experts. It is after around two decades that this part of the country, including Prayagraj has received early monsoons.
During the past 24-hours (Sunday to Monday evening) the city received 69.6 mm of rainfall. Since Monday morning alone, the city received 37 mm of rainfall, weathermen said.
Experts believe this may be because of the two strong cyclones that the country has witnessed in the last month and suggest that there could be a long gap of dry spell after these early showers.
On Sunday, the city recorded a maximum temperature of 29.9 degrees Celsius while the minimum was 26.6 degrees Celsius. On Monday, the maximum temperature was recorded at 29.1 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature was recorded at 25.4 degrees Celsius.
As per Indian meteorological department (IMD), the normal date for monsoon in Prayagraj was June 18-20. By June 25, the monsoon covers the entire state.
“However, for the past around two decades, the monsoon was arriving here in late June or first week of July.
The weather experts had, in fact, started debating on the need of making changes in the date of arrival of monsoon. But here we are witnessing an early arrival of the monsoon, a phenomenon which should be studied thoroughly”, said former head of the department and renowned geographer of the city, Prof Savindra Singh.
He said, “Among several reasons, for the early shift in monsoon one could be the two strong cyclones—Tauktae in Arabian sea and Yaas in Bay of Bengal— that had arrived within a small gap and could have affected this alteration.”
“This could be termed as ‘freak weather phenomenon’ and the two cyclones surely have caused this change. But at the same time, farmers have to be very careful as there could be long dry spells which could affect their agricultural cycle, said head of the geography department, AU Prof AR Siddiqui.
The weather experts have predicted cloudy conditions for the next 48 hours as thick cloud cover would dominate the sky with intermittent heavy to light rainfall across the state.