A prevailing deep depression over North-West Chhattisgarh and adjoining North-East Madhya Pradesh and South-East Uttar Pradesh has, from amongst rain-generating systems on view so far this season, stood out by being able to stick to a path closest to the rain-deficient regions of North-West and East India. It also managed to retain its near-cyclonic status for longer than expected until early this morning, when it weakened to the next lower level as a depression.
Deficit regions in East India
India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the depression was located about 120 km West-North-West of Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh); 150 km South-West of Churk (Uttar Pradesh); 170 km East-South-East of Satna; and 120 km East of Umaria (both Madhya Pradesh). East India continues to be the only rain-deficient region with the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal among the worst hit.
ALSO READ: Rain deficit in 64 UP districts, farmers worried
Moisture feed from Arabian Sea
But the deep depression has brought varying amounts of rainfall to this region during the last couple of days. The IMD said it would continue to move across North Madhya Pradesh and weaken into a well-marked low-pressure area by Monday. It is also getting some moisture feed from the Arabian Sea kicked up by a predecessor system, currently a low-pressure area located over South-East Pakistan. An incoming western disturbance parked over the Pak-Afghan border on Sunday morning, may be accentuating the regional weather, some of which is getting reflected in the heavy rain and landslides being reported from Himachal Pradesh.
Rain forecast for today
The IMD said the depression will drop rain at most places over Jharkhand and East Madhya Pradesh during the rest of the day today (Sunday); at many places over the plains of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, East Madhya Pradesh, Konkan, Goa, and Maharashtra; and at a few places over Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi; and isolated places over Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, hills of West Bengal, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Vidarbha.
Moderate rain on Saturday
The 12 hours ending on Saturday evening saw moderate rainfall over East and North-West India. Main cities recording the rain (in cm) included Katra-6; Ranchi-5; Jamshedpur and Guna-4 each; Patiala, Keonjghgarh and Jhansi-3 each; Pendra Road, Ambikapur, Hirakud, Ludhiana and Panagarh-2 each. The following 12 hours (until early Sunday morning) witnessed thunderstorms at isolated places over Assam, Meghalaya, Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh.
Fresh circulation soon?
Meanwhile, numerical weather predictions continued to suggest that yet another cyclonic circulation from the Myanmar side will drift into the North Bay of Bengal and cross the Odisha and West Bengal coast in the next four to five days, kicking off another spell for East-Central India and progressively into the rain-scarce plains of North-West India. Simultaneously, rains are forecast to open up a new front over the South Peninsula from the Tamil Nadu side, to end a lean phase that has lasted for the past 10 days or more.