Monsoon to become active over central and northwest India: IMD

After a break of nearly three weeks, the southwest monsoon has become active over Maharashtra, Gujarat and parts of the southern peninsula.

A low pressure system, which had formed over the Bay of Bengal earlier this week and moved over to Odisha, became a cyclonic circulation on Wednesday and has helped revive the monsoon.

“The cyclonic circulation lay over Jharkhand will move west-northwestwards in the next 48 hours across Madhya Pradesh,” the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its forecast issued on Wednesday.

Some of the heaviest 24-hour rain over Maharashtra and Gujarat on Wednesday was recorded at Pathri (129 mm), Amalner (110 mm), Daulatabad (96 mm), Dahod (66 mm), Nandurbar (63 mm), Agumbe (48 mm), Nanded (45 mm) and Roha (43 mm).

“Rainfall over Maharashtra is mainly due to the east-west shear zone,” said an IMD official.

With such favourable conditions, widespread, enhanced and isolated heavy rain (64.5 mm to 115.5 mm in 24 hours) is likely over central India, Gujarat, Maharashtra Odisha, Jharkhand and the Gangetic West Bengal on Thursday, whereas rainfall over Madhya Pradesh will continue till Friday.

The monsoon trough continues to remain close to the Himalayan foothills but there will be some southward shifting (in its western end) in the next two days, the Met department said.

Rainfall will once again pick up over Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and continue till Sunday. The IMD has warned of very heavy rain (115.6 mm to 204.4 mm in 24 hours) over Uttarakhand till Friday and similar intensity rainfall over Bihar during the weekend.

The ongoing rain over northeast India will continue till the end of this week after which the intensity will subside.

The all-India rainfall continued to remain below normal and on Wednesday it was 9 per cent. Manipur (-55 per cent), Gujarat (-49 per cent), Ladakh (-48 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (-29 per cent), Kerala and Odisha (- 28 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (-25 per cent), Mizoram (-24 per cent), Assam and Nagaland (-22 per cent), Punjab (-21 per cent) and Himachal Pradesh (- 20 per cent) remain rainfall deficient this season till date.