Heavy rain lashes North-East

Heavy rain has lashed many places in the North-East as seasonal thundershowers peaked during the 24 hours ending on Tuesday morning.

The weather-maker trough ran down from Bihar to northwest Bay of Bengal even as a facilitating western disturbance persisted over Jammu and Kashmir.

COOLS DOWN

The thundershowers have helped cool down the region by bringing maximum temperatures to below normal by two to three deg Celsius.

Moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal is expected to continue over the north-eastern States for three more days.

Fairly widespread rain or thundershowers accompanied with isolated thunder squall would occur over the north-eastern States during next two days before decreasing in intensity.

Isolated heavy rainfall accompanied with thunder squall is likely to occur over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya during the two days.

Forecast until Sunday said that scattered rain or thundershowers accompanied with isolated thunder squall are likely over the north-eastern States.

Scattered rain or snow may occur over Jammu and Kashmir while being isolated over Himachal Pradesh.

PARTLY CLOUDED

Satellite imagery showed low to medium clouds (partly clouded conditions) over parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, the Northeastern States, Andhra Pradesh and South Andaman Sea.

Isolated to scattered rain or snow would occur over western Himalayan region during next 24 hours.

The IMD has maintained the lookout for a fresh western disturbance affecting the western Himalayas around Friday.

This might set off scattered rain or snow in the region, while giving a lagged lease of life to thundershowers over the northeast.

According to the US National Centres for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), the westerlies may set up a string of thunderstorms along the Himalayan foothills and lead to a blow-up over the north-east during the week ending April 6.

In the south, isolated rain or thundershowers have been forecast over Kerala, south Karnataka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from remnant circulations of an easterly wave.

EASTERLY WAVE

The NCEP has stuck to its forecast for accentuation of the wave during the week ending April 6, bringing rainfall over southern Kerala and adjoining interior Tamil Nadu but less so over coastal Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, heat wave conditions prevailed over parts of south Uttar Pradesh, north Madhya Pradesh, parts of Chhattisgarh and isolated pockets of north Rajasthan and interior Orissa.

Maximum temperatures are above normal by 4 to 6 deg Celsius over northwest, central and parts of east India and by 2 to 3 deg Celsius over parts of Maharashtra and extreme south peninsular India.

The day's maximum temperature of 42.4 deg Celsius was recorded at Jharsuguda in Orissa on Monday.


Maximum temperatures are expected to fall by 2 deg Celsius over northwest India during the next two days as the fresh westerly rolls in.

But temperatures are shown to rise over east and adjoining central India during the next three days as an overarching ridge (high-pressure area) from the north Pacific invades the upper atmosphere over central India.

According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), this ridge is forecast to cause a calibrated rise in temperatures over the region before heading north-northwest to drive up heat over Gujarat and west Rajasthan as well.

An IMD warning said that heat wave conditions may continue to hold over parts of south Uttar Pradesh, north Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and interior Orissa during the next 24 hours.