An unusually strong western disturbance storming past North-West and adjoining West India accompanied by high winds, lightning, hailstorm and heavy showers have taken at least 35 lives across the region.
The India Met Department (IMD) had issued special warning about the impending arrival of the destructive system along a familiar path for itinerant western disturbances from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan year before winding its way into India.
It has also signalled that a follow-up western disturbance, much weaker than the current one in terms of intensity, may check in over North-West India by Tuesday (April 23).
Follow-up system
Extended forecast for three days from April 22 (Monday) said that isolated to scattered rain/thundershowers may lash the hills of western Himalayas while it would be scattered to fairly widespread over East and North-East India.
After triggering severe weather over major parts of Northwest India and adjoining Central India, the current one is heading East to ‘light up’ the East and the North-East in a swarm of lightning accompanied by hailstorm, high winds and thundershowers.
Moving East will progressively cut the moisture from the Arabian Sea losing intensity, but it would find it in abundance in the Bay of Bengal to rustle up a pattern of rough to very rough weather over the East and the North-East.
Still, the lingering moisture might be enough to trigger fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds (speed reaching 40-50 kmph) over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, North-East Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Thursday as well.
Read:Storms in North, West damage wheat crop
North-West to North-East
Isolated thundersquall and hailstorms are forecast over East Madhya Pradesh and North Chhattisgarh during this period. Alongside, thundersqualls may line up over Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
The 24 hours ending on Wednesday morning saw rain/thundershowers being reported at most places in Assam, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
Many places over Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, West Bengal, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha also witnessed similar weather during the period.
A few places over Bihar and at isolated places over East Gujarat, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathawada, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala also joined the list, some of them getting impacted by unstable weather emanating from South India.
Read: Rains, thunderstorm leave nearly 50 dead in 4 states
South Peninsula hit
Meanwhile, the causative western disturbance was parked over North Pakistan on Wednesday even as a ‘mercenary’ circulation induced by it but lying downstrean over West Rajasthan was mostly responsible for the rough weather.
Towards the South, thundery weather originating from Equatorial Indian Ocean conducted a delayed sortie over the South Peninsula bombarding South Kerala and adjoining Tamil Nadu with several cloud to ground lightning strikes.
Heavy rain lashed Thiruvananthapuram and suburbs towards Tuesday evening in the first such and long-awaited event. IT was enough to cause a substantial drop in the mercury level. More such weather is forecast over the next four to five days.
A nowcast issued by the local Met centre at 6.20 pm on Tuesday and valid for thre hours said that thunderstorms accompanied by rain and gusty winds with speed reaching up to 50 km/hr may lash Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Ernakulam, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Wayand districts.