Northwest India witnessed a dip in temperatures on Friday after almost a week of heat wave conditions but high humidity led to discomfort as the monsoon continued to play truant in the region. The India Meteorological Department, however, said conditions are favourable for the arrival of monsoon rains in Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan within a day.
A parliamentary panel was on Friday told by officials about the possibility of monsoon to hit this part of the country within the next 24 to 48 hours.
Senior representatives of ministry of earth sciences (MoES) and private weather forecaster Skymet Weather shared with the panel the factors which led to the long ‘break phase’ in monsoon since June 19 and explained how the situation will now improve leading to overall ‘normal’ monsoon in the country as predicted earlier.
The parliamentary standing committee on science & technology, and environment, chaired by Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh, called them to present their views and share factual position on the status of monsoon, its progress and distribution of rainfall across the country.
Reportedly, the MoES told the panel about the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) first and second stage of forecast and why the national weather forecaster stuck to its prediction of overall ‘normal’ monsoon this year.
However, places in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand started receiving light to moderate rain from Friday itself, it said. Humid conditions prevailed in Delhi as it recorded a maximum temperature of 38.2 degrees Celsius.
The city has experienced four 'heat wave days' this month — on July 1 with a maximum temperature of 43.1 degrees Celsius, July 2 at a high of 41.3 degrees Celsius, July 7 when the mercury soared to 42.6 degrees Celsius and on July 8 with the maximum reaching 41.8 degrees Celsius. On Friday, the relative humidity in the national capital oscillated between 89 per cent and 49 per cent. In neighbouring Gurgaon, the maximum temperature was recorded at 39.7 degrees Celsius while Noida in Uttar Pradesh registered a high of 38.2 degrees Celsius.
Hot weather conditions persisted in Punjab and Haryana on Friday even as a few places received rainfall. Narnaul in Haryana recorded its maximum at 41.5 degrees Celsius, four notches above the normal. Among other places in the state, Hisar recorded a high of 41.1 degrees Celsius while Karnal, which received 32 mm of rainfall, registered its maximum temperature of 34.8 degrees Celsius.
The maximum temperatures in Punjab's Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala settled at 36.7, 35.7 and 35.6 degrees Celsius. Ludhiana and Patiala witnessed rainfall of 0.6 mm and 7.9 mm. Chandigarh, the joint capital of the two states received light rains in the morning and registered a maximum temperature of 36.8 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal.
Monsoon winds have started setting in some parts of Rajasthan, with Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner and Churu districts of Bikaner division witnessing rain and dust storm on Friday. The weather department has forecast good rainfall in the coming days in various parts of the state. Most places in the state will receive rainfall on Saturday when the monsoon is likely to become active in parts of Kota, Jaipur Udaipur, Bharatpur, Ajmer divisions.
Ahead of the arrival of rains, most places in the state reeled under heat and high humidity. Sriganganagar recorded its maximum temperature at 42.6 degrees Celsius, Bikaner at 42.3 degrees Celsius, and Churu at 42.6 degrees Celsius. Light to moderate rain and thundershower occurred at a few places in Uttar Pradesh even as some isolated parts of the state experienced heat wave conditions.
Agra recorded the highest maximum temperature in the state at 42.3 degrees Celsius while the day temperatures fell in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly and Jhansi divisions. Rainfall also occurred in isolated places of Uttarakhand as the maximum temperatures remained above normal both in the plains and the hills. State capital Dehradun registered the highest maximum temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius.
Even though the monsoon has eluded northwest India so far, it has been vigorous over Tamil Nadu and other parts of south India. Rainfall occurred at most places in Kerala, Lakshadweep area, coastal Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Puducherry, and at isolated parts of Telangana and coastal Andhra Pradesh. According to the IMD, a low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal is likely to bring widespread rainfall in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha in the next five days.
Due to further strengthening of southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea and likely formation of a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal around July 11, enhanced rainfall activity is very likely along the west coast and adjoining Peninsular India, it said.
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(With inputs from PTI)
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