Incessant heavy rain lashed Mumbai, prompting the meteorological department to upgrade the 'orange' alert to 'red' with effect from Wednesday night till Thursday afternoon, officials said.
The southwest monsoon might finally start withdrawing from parts of North-West India over the next three days, signaling the end of its four-month journey over the country that started in June, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. However, though the retreat might begin from next week, the rains might not descend quickly, as the met department predicted fresh spells of rains in Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and east MP on September 21-22 and over Odisha, Coastal areas north Andhra Pradesh and Gangetic West Bengal on September 19-21. "Due to anti-cyclonic flows over northwest India at lower tropospheric levels, dry weather is very likely over west Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi during the next five days. "Hence conditions are becoming favourable for the withdrawal of Southwest Monsoon from parts of northwest India during next three days," the IMD said.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported that very dense fog began forming around 5.30 am, resulting in a thick haze over different parts of the national capital.
Mercury hovered around 40 degrees Celsius in large parts of the country on Monday as the Indian meteorological department predicted heat wave conditions in parts of east India over the next four days and the northwest region over the next two days.
The India meteorological department on Monday issued an 'orange alert' for Mumbai and Thane signalling very heavy rainfall till June 21.
Cyclonic storm Fengal has commenced making landfall close to Puducherry and it may approximately take 4 hours for it to cross the coast completely, an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said. The process of the cyclone's landfall commenced at about 5.30 pm on November 30. The IMD said the forward sector of spiral bands associated with the cyclone has entered into the land and is likely to move west-southwestwards and cross north Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram close to Puducherry as a cyclonic storm with a wind speed of 70-80 kmph gusting to 90 kmph during next 3 to 4 hours.
The landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm Dana was complete on Friday morning and the system took at least eight and half hours to enter the landmass, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
More than 150 express/passenger trains running through South Eastern Railway jurisdiction have been cancelled in view of the severe cyclonic storm, an SER official said.
Wheat production during the current season is expected to be better than last year provided the weather remains favourable over the next few weeks, said senior industry executives. The weather had turned uncharacteristically hot in the latter half of last month, but owing to strong winds, the chill has returned in the last few days.
Mumbai recorded a minimum temperature of 16.5 degrees Celsius on Friday, the lowest for November in the last eight years, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. This temperature was recorded by the Santacruz observatory, which records weather parameters for Mumbai's suburbs. The Colaba observatory, which records weather parameters for the island city, registered a minimum temperature of 21.4 degrees Celsius during the same period. There is no cold wave alert for Maharashtra from November 30 to December 3, and temperature is set to rise.
Northwest, central and east India are predicted to record maximum temperatures three to five degrees above normal over the next five days, the India meteorological department (IMD) said on Thursday.
India recorded around 16 per cent more rainfall than normal in August, with rainfall over Northwest India recorded at 253.9 mm, the second highest in August since 2001, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Saturday.
Cyclone Asna, formed over the coast of Kutch in Gujarat earlier during the day, has moved into the Arabian sea towards Oman without leaving any major impact on the region, officials said on Friday evening.
The IMD, in its review for the month, said the observed monthly average maximum, minimum and mean temperature for the country as a whole during March this year are 32.65 degrees Celsius, 19.95 degrees Celsius and 26.30 degrees Celsius, respectively, against the normal 31.24 degrees Celsius, 18.87 degrees Celsius and 25.06 degrees Celsius based on the climatology period 1981-2010.
While there was a brief respite from the incessant downpour on Tuesday, collaborative efforts from the defence, national, and state disaster response forces took the lead in executing rescue and relief operations.
As Odisha and West Bengal are bracing for a severe cyclonic storm, governments of both states started evacuating people and while deciding to close educational institutions in vulnerable areas.
The Met office had said Monday that significantly higher-than-normal temperatures may have an adverse impact on wheat and other crops.
The Met Office has issued a yellow alert, warning of moderate rain which could cause more problems to the residents of Delhi.
Manual horizontal digging will start soon in addition to the ongoing top-down drilling to rescue the 41 trapped workers in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, the NDMA said on Monday.
Delhi is likely to receive the first monsoon showers on June 30 or July 1, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said on Tuesday.
The four-month monsoon season from June to September accounts for 75 per cent of rainfall in the country.
A civic volunteer, identified as Chandan Das (31), died on the spot when he allegedly touched a live wire in Bud Bud in Purba Bardhaman district. The incident happened when he was out with a police team, they said.
However, there was no report of any major damage or casualty so far even as the landfall process started more than an hour ago, the official said.
The rainfall in July was minus seven per cent which comes to around 93 per cent of the Long Period Average, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
No part of northwest, central and east India is likely to record a heatwave over the next five days, the MeT office said.
The airport had temporarily suspended operations on Saturday due to strong winds and heavy rainfall caused by cyclones.
Western disturbances are near Pakistan-Afghanistan and are moving towards Delhi and thunderstorms or dust storms are likely to be experienced in northwest India, senior scientist at IMD RK Jenamani told ANI.
The southwest monsoon is expected to reach Kerala during the next two to three days, marking a sluggish start to the seasonal rains that are the lifeline of India's agri-based economy.
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.
Brace for some warmth this winter as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its December-February forecast on Thursday said that the minimum and maximum temperatures could remain 'normal' to 'above normal' over most parts of Northwest and Northeast India. Both the minimum and maximum will remain below normal in Southern Peninsular and Central India in these winter months. While this could give some respite from the intense cold of North India, it could have a negative impact on the standing rabi crops if the temperature rise is unusual and abnormal.
A fresh spell of heatwave is likely to begin over northwest India from May 7 and over central India from May 8, the India meteorological department said on Thursday.
The Southwest Monsoon usually covers the entire country on July 8. The earlier normal date for the monsoon to cover the entire country was July 15.
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.
Conditions were becoming favourable for further advance of the southwest monsoon over some more parts of the south peninsula and east India and adjoining areas between June 18 and 21.
The weather department said its latest model analysis had indicated that the moist easterly winds in the lower level from the Bay of Bengal would spread to northwest India, covering Punjab and Haryana by July 10, leading to the advancement of monsoon and an increase in rainfall activity over the region, including Delhi, from July 10 onwards.
Heavy rain in the first week of July compensated for the shortfall but caused flooding in many northeastern states.
IMD Director General M Mohapatra said there is cyclonic circulation along the Karnataka coast which is hindering the progress of the southwest monsoon.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday predicted 'moderate to heavy rainfall' for Mumbai city and its suburbs and the possibility of 'very heavy to extremely heavy' showers at isolated places in the next 24 hours.
After its late withdrawal from northwest India, the southwest monsoon remains active over some parts of the country.
The minimum temperature in Delhi was recorded at 28.6 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
