The very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae could cause heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in north Konkan, Mumbai, Thane and Palghar in Maharashtra on May 17, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The mercury at the Safdarjung Observatory is expected to breach the 43-degree mark on Thursday and touch 44 degrees Celsius by Friday, according to the India meteorological department.
The federal contingency force has committed a total of 112 teams for deployment in five states and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are expected to be affected by the cyclone developing in the Bay of Bengal.
With rainfall and monsoons becoming highly unpredictable partly due to climate change and partly due to usual changes in weather patterns, it is such innovations by IMD which will help in planning better, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
The orange alert has been issued for moderate or heavy thunderstorms and wind speed with 30-40 km per hour to reach some districts of Odisha within the next three hours.
Santosh Patkar of Devgadh Taluka Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra is a worried man these days. Devgadh, which is known as the home to world famous Alphonso variety of mangoes, has seen an unusual drop in yields which is affecting farmers' income. Being one of the primary agricultural produce from the area, Santosh is not untouched by this somewhat rare phenomenon. He said in his own mango garden, yields have come down by a third from most trees.
The West Bengal government has taken all precautionary measures to deal with Cyclone Yaas, likely to hit the state on May 26, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will stay at a control room set up for the purpose to monitor the situation, officials said.
As many as 45 people have been killed due to cyclone Tauktae across 12 districts of Gujarat, officials.
Six people have lost their lives so far in the Cyclone Tauktae-hit coastal and surrounding Malnad districts of Karnataka, officials said.
The met department said that rainfall in August is projected to be within the normal range at 97% of LPA. In August and September, India receives around 43 mm of rainfall.
The IMD has also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
Monsoon in August was almost 24 per cent below normal, which was the sixth driest August since 1901. It came on the back of a 7-per cent monsoon shortfall in July.
"Cyclone Nisarga is likely to become a severe cyclone in the next 12 hours. It will continue to move for the next six hours in a northerly direction along the coast, after that it will re-curve as a cyclone and cross Raigad and Daman-Raigad," Aanand Sharma, deputy director, IMD told ANI.
The IMD has issued an orange alert for Mumbai, warning of very heavy rains at isolated places with strong winds on Monday as the very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae is likely to pass close to the Mumbai coast towards Gujarat.
The system moved north-northeastwards at 20 kmph in the last six hours and is over west-central Bay of Bengal, 90 km from Gopalpur, 120 km from Puri and 210 km from Paradip, the weather office said in its 11.30 am bulletin.
The met department said rainfall is very likely at most places in Tamil Nadu, Puduchery and Karaikal with heavy to very heavy showers at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places on Wednesday.
Large swathes of the country reeled under heatwave conditions on Tuesday with Churu in Rajasthan recording a high of 48 degree Celsius.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Srinagar was minus 14.4 degrees Celsius in 1893.
Rain or thundershowers have also been predicted in south interior Karnataka and at a few places over Coastal Karnataka and North interior Karnataka.
Heavy rain threatens to play spoilsport when India face New Zealand in their next World Cup game at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a warning that the heat wave condition is likely to occur at isolated places in all districts in Telangana on Sunday.
An estimated 1.5 lakh people are being shifted from low-lying coastal areas in Gujarat while 54 teams of the NDRF and SDRF remained deployed on Sunday in view of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) warning that the very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae will reach the state coast on Monday evening and cross it on early Tuesday morning.
"The season averaged maximum temperatures in Himachal Pradesh, West Rajasthan, Konkan, Goa, Coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh are likely to be higher than normal by 0.5-1.0 degree Celsius," the Met department has said in its forecast.
Town planning authority MMRDA on Tuesday said that nearly 150 patients at its COVID facility in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) have been shifted to another location as a precaution in the wake of the Nisarga Cyclone which is expected to make a landfall close to the city on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, trains ran on time on the Main and Western lines of the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) on Saturday.
Very light rains and thundershowers occurred at isolated places in Uttar Pradesh though, and a fresh warning of heavy showers was issued in Himachal Pradesh as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely in several parts of the country, including the northern region, over the next six-seven days.
Twelve of the 36 meteorological subdivisions recorded deficient rainfall, while the rest witnessed normal to excess rain. In total, 38 per cent of the 662 districts received below-normal rain.
Strong winds with speed of 45-55 km/h and reaching occasionally upto 65 km/h, would continue along and off Maharashtra and south Gujarat coasts during the next 24 hours, local Met department said.
IMD has decided to increasingly use cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in forecasting, both to avoid such glitches and to counter the disruption of normal seasonal patterns as a result of climate change. It has formed various internal sub-groups of senior officials and meteorologists to decide on how best to use AI and ML in predicting cyclone intensity, and in making short-range weather forecasts (those valid for up to three hours) as well as long-range forecasts.
Banerjee said the state is targeting to shift at least 10 lakh people to safer places in a bid to avoid any loss of life.
The deep depression which had formed over the south west of Bay of Bengal has intensified into a cyclone named Nelam, which is expected to cross over Nagapattinam and Nellore (South Andhra Pradesh) on Wednesday evening,
Chief Ministers of both states announced Rs 4 lakh ex gratia to the next kin of the deceased.
In the first major downpour of this monsoon season heavy rains lashed Mumbai since Wednesday night, disrupting vehicular and rail traffic.
The government on Wednesday raised the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy marginally by Rs 72 per quintal to Rs 1,940 per quintal for the 2021-22 crop year, while the rates of pulses, oilseeds and cereals were hiked substantially. Among the commercial crops, the MSP of cotton was increased by Rs 211 per quintal to Rs 5,726 for medium staple variety, and by Rs 200 per quintal to Rs 6,025 for long-staple variety of cotton for the 2021-22 crop year (July-June). The decision taken by the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will help farmers take a call on which kharif (summer) crop to grow as sowing picks with the spread of the Southwest monsoon in the coming weeks.
The NDMA added that the National Capital Region, and Hisar, Kaithal, Jind, Kurukshetra, Karnal in Haryana is likely to be again hit by the unusual weather on Wednesday.
An earthquake measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale was recorded in the Arabia Sea, the Met office in Mumbai said.
A day after Cyclone Yaas tore through coastal Odisha and Bengal to cause havoc as far as Jharkhand, tornadoes, torrential rains, bridge collapses and swelling rivers continued to plague eastern India as people tried to pick up their lives amid the debris of swept away mud homes and swamped farmlands.
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Wednesday, causing flooding on roads and rail tracks and disrupting suburban train services as the south-west monsoon arrived in the city with a bang, while the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an alert for more downpour.
'It affects our economy, it is very important in many ways.' 'So we have to be the foremost experts in the world on the monsoon.' 'But the best minds in India have not devoted their time to the study of monsoon and they have followed the fashions of the West.'
Rains have been 5% below normal so far, but Met department sticks to its forecast
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