After heatwave, Nisarga to give rain relief to Vidarbha

of eastern Maharashtra that were reeling under severe heatwave last month, received rain on Thursday in the wake of Cyclone Nisarga, bringing the mercury down. On Thursday, the maximum temperature at Akola was 12.2 degrees below normal at 27 degrees Celsius while that of Nagpur was 29.9 degrees Celsius (11.7 degrees below normal). The weather bureau said maximum temperatures are very likely to be below normal (by 1.6 to 3 degrees) in Vidarbha and Madhya Maharashtra for the next two days.

Cyclone Nisarga, which weakened into a deep depression late on Wednesday and diminished into a depression on early Thursday morning, has been moving at a speed of 23 kilometres per hour (kmph). When it made landfall in Raigad, the maximum speed was 120kmph, the India Meteorological

Department (IMD) said. The weather system has moved to western Vidarbha, about 110 km west-southwest of Akola, 320 Km west-southwest of Nagpur and 100 km northeast of Aurangabad.

“After rain over parts of north Maharashtra including Dhule, Nandurbar and Nashik, districts like Akola, Chandrapur, Nagpur and Bhandara, which were recording over 46 degrees Celsius last month will receive moderate showers over the next 48 hours,” said IMD director general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra.

Less than 10 days ago, the weather bureau issued a ‘red alert’ for heatwave conditions for Vidarbha sub-division.

With the relief in the form of rain owing to the ‘remnant effect’ of Cyclone Nisarga, maximum temperatures across 11 districts of Vidarbha region ranged between 27 degrees Celsius at Amravati (12 degrees below normal) to 34.8 degrees Celsius (6.6 degrees below normal) at Chandrapur.