The rampant monsoon that has brought many areas in the Peninsula and Central India under a sheet of water may relent, but only to the extent of delaying the formation of the next low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal.
The India Met Department (IMD) has said that the stronger and more intense ‘low’ may show up by Saturday, a couple of days later than thought. This is attributed to the hyperactive predecessor ‘low’ that has not shown any sign of weakening.
Heavy rain belt
A three-day outlook from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts indicated heaviest rainfall over the Khavda-Jamnagar-Veraval stretch in Gujarat; and Tharad, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Jaipur, Gwalior, Lalitpur, Jabalpur, Itarsi and Indore across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
The West Coast will also witness heavy rains right from Nashik, Mumbai, Satara, Belagavi, Sagara, and Mangaluru. North Kerala and the ghat regions in Central Kerala will also receive heavy precipitation.
Kerala has been witnessing flood conditions over the last couple of days with at least 12 related deaths having been reported already. Road and rail traffic has been severely affected.
The rain deficit for the country has been reduced to two per cent as of Tuesday, with a dramatic improvement in the monsoon over the past 3-4 days.
Even the persistently dry Saurashtra and Gujarat have now been put under ‘rainfall-normal’ category. But Lakshadweep, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and the North-Eastern States continue to be varying in deficit.
Active monsoon
The 24 hours ending on Tuesday morning saw heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy falls being reported from Gujarat and Madhya Maharashtra; heavy to very heavy from Punjab, West Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya and heavy rain from Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Konkan, Goa, Vidarbha, Odisha, hills of Bengal, Sikkim, Kerala and Interior Tamil Nadu.
An extended IMD forecast from July 22-24 said that fairly widespread to widespread rainfall will lash the West Coast, the North-East, East and adjoining Central India with enhanced activity over parts of Central India.
Scattered to fairly widespread rainfall is likely over North-West India. Isolated to scattered rainfall over the rest of the country is seen during this period, which means that the monsoon will remain active over the country for another week.
As for Wednesday, heavy to very heavy rain with with extremely heavy falls at isolated places are likely over West Madhya Pradesh, East Gujarat, Saurashtra and Konkan and Goa. It will be heavy to very heavy over East Rajasthan, Madhya Maharashtra, Coastal Karnataka and Kerala and heavy rain over East Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Assam, Meghalaya, Interior Karnataka and the ghat areas of Tamil Nadu.