The India Meteorological Department has issued an 'orange' alert.
Three national highways in Kutch, Navsari and Dang districts were blocked due to damage caused by rains. Fifty one state highways and over 400 panchayat roads have also been damaged, state Disaster Management Minister Rajendra Trivedi told reporters.
Heavy downpour continued in various parts of Gujarat on Tuesday and six people died in rain-related incidents in the last 24 hours, raising the toll to 69 since June 1, officials said.
Low temperature -- Delhi recorded a minimum of 13.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, the season's lowest so far -- allowed accumulation of pollutants, said Mahesh Palawat, vice president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet Weather.
The weather department attributed the unusual heat to the lack of rainfall due to the absence of active western disturbances over north India and any major system over south India.
It's still early days, but the southwest monsoon has been nearly 37 per cent 'below normal' in the first seven days (June 1-7) of this month. According to the data furnished by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), between June 1 and June 7, India received 14.5 millimetres (mm) of rainfall, against a 'normal' 23.1 mm. Among places where rains have arrived, monsoon in Kerala in the first seven days has been 48 per cent 'below normal', while in Puducherry, it has been 56 per cent 'above normal'. In Tamil Nadu, rains were 21 per cent 'above normal' between June 1 and June 7.
The low-pressure area over the South Andaman Sea and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal is very likely to move northwestwards and intensify into a depression by Saturday, the weather office 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.
Authorities in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have taken a slew of measures to handle the situation arising out of the cyclonic storm, which has led to heavy rainfall in several regions.
Operations at the Delhi airport remained normal. However, three flights were returned or diverted to the Delhi airport due to bad weather in Chandigarh, Varanasi and Lucknow on Tuesday night.
Several global models are predicting El Nio to appear around the second half of the year, which are the crucial rain-bearing months.
The landfall process of the eye of the extremely severe cyclonic storm Tauktae, which hit the Gujarat coast in Saurashtra region between Diu and Una, ended around midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
A well-marked low-pressure area over southwest Bay of Bengal intensified into a depression on Thursday morning packing wind speed of 40-50 kmph as it moved towards the north Tamil Nadu coast, the weather office said.
'It is very likely to move nearly northwards for next few hour and recurve slowly north-northeastwards along Narsapur, Yanam, Kakinada, Tuni and Visakhapatnam coasts during noon to evening on Wednesday and emerge into west central Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh coasts by night,' the India Meteorological Department said in its national bulletin.
The cyclonic storm is likely to move nearly westwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur around Sunday evening, the Cyclone Warning Division of the IMD said.
Airlines have been advised to reschedule services, to the convenience of passengers.
The weather system over the South Andaman Sea and the adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal is very likely to move north-westwards and strengthen into a depression by Saturday, the Met Department said.
No part of northwest, central and east India is likely to record a heatwave over the next five days, the MeT office said.
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 India meteorological department has stated that day temperatures are likely to be above normal by 0.5 degree Celsius, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
Around 29 trains have been delayed by two to five hours due to foggy weather, a railway official said.
A red alert was declared in 8 districts of Kerala on Thursday by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) as rains continued to lash various parts of the state and disrupted the day-to-day lives of the people as roads got flooded or caved in and many got displaced from their homes to relief camps.
Trade and market players have already started factoring in at least 10 million tonnes drop in production in rice in the kharif season as compared to last year due to delayed sowing.
In a shocking incident, a Shiv Sena MLA forced a civic contractor to sit on a waterlogged road in Mumbai on Saturday and asked workers to dump garbage on him for allegedly not getting the drains cleaned properly.
"We are expecting that the temperature will be higher than normal in the entire northwest India and the adjoining central India, starting with Gujarat, Rajasthan and up to east Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh," he said at a virtual event on 'Building Climate Resilience for the Most Heat Vulnerable'.
The south-bound traffic was diverted to another road, the fire control room official said, adding that work was on to remove the debris from the road.
Painted with pink and neon green, the 'snow car' has been a hit on social media.
The country saw 645 events of heavy rainfall and 168 events of very heavy rainfall in November, the highest in the month in five years, the India meteorological department said on Wednesday.
After the west coast, another cyclone is likely to hit the east coast by May 26-27, the India meteorological department said on Wednesday.
The India Meteorological Department on Wednesday issued an orange alert for Delhi, predicting 'heavy' to 'very heavy' rainfall in parts of the capital with winds gusting up to 60 kilometers per hour.
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.
Authorities have sounded red alert in three districts of Kerala on May 14 and five districts on May 15, indicating the possibility of extremely heavy rains under the influence of a low pressure area over the Arabian Sea.
As rains continue to lash across Kerala days ahead of the expected onset of Southwest monsoon, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday issued a red alert in five districts of the state for Sunday and Monday indicating extremely heavy rainfall.
Apart from the metropolis, several other parts of Maharashtra also reported a drop in night temperatures, resulting in chill and cool breeze in those areas.
The Met Department has predicted light to moderate rainfall across parts of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha with the probability of the severe cyclonic storm 'Asani' recurving.
India recorded 125 extremely heavy rainfall events during September and October of 2021, the highest in five years, owing to late withdrawal of the southwest monsoon and higher-than-normal low-pressure systems, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday.
The area under paddy - the biggest foodgrain during the kharif season - was almost 13 per cent lower in the week ended August 5 as compared to the same period last year despite a slight pick-up in rains in the main growing regions, triggering fears of a 10-12 million-tonne drop in final output. Sources said with the peak sowing season for paddy almost coming to an end in the big-growing states, any uptick in coverage from here onwards may not give the desired yields. With 30 per cent of normal average area in which paddy is grown every year remaining unsown till early August, there is a limited chance of a big uptick in output, trade and market sources said.
The IMD DG said there should not be an impression that climate change leads to rise in the temperature, but on the contrary, it leads to erratic weather.
In a letter to the states/UTs on Saturday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan requested them to disseminate the guideline document 'National Action Plan on Heat Related Illnesses' to all districts for effective management of cases of heatwave.
In a statement, it said 198 properties in the state were partially damaged and 30 houses completely destroyed in the rains from July 31 to till date.
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