Monsoon covers whole Bihar, many places receive good rainfall

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

PATNA: Several cities and towns in different parts of Bihar on Saturday received good rainfall as the monsoon covered the entire state, Met officials said.

The monsoon which hit Bihar’s north east districts on Friday, covered the entire state on Saturday, the Patna Meteorological Centre said.

Several cities and towns in different parts of the state received a good rainfall bringing down the temperature below normal maximum temperature.

Patna, like other cities, which have been facing the heatwave since the beginning of June this year, on Saturday witnessed a pleasant weather because of the first spell of good rainfall since the morning.

Patna received 33.0 mm of rainfall during the day between 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, bringing down maximum temperature down to 32.4 degrees Celsius which is three notches below normal, Met official said.

Gaya recorded a temperature of 33.0 degrees Celsius which is three degrees below normal maximum temperature, he said.

Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded maximum temperature of 36.0 degrees and 33.8 degrees respectively, Met official said, adding that Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded 3.2 mm and 0.3 mm rainfall respectively.

Met department forecast said that Patna is expected to witness generally cloudy sky on Sunday while Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea are expected to witness generally cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thunderstorm.

Exit heatwave, get ready for rains

Source: telegraphindia.com

Jharkhand is likely to experience showers from Thursday with the monsoon expected to make its grand entry in the state sometime over the weekend, the weather office has indicated.

Ranchi Meteorological Centre officials said conditions for the advancement of the southwest monsoon had become favourable ever since the severe cyclonic storm Vayu had waned. This meant that over the next three to four days the monsoon would move into parts of Andhra Pradesh and remaining parts of Tamil Nadu, some more areas of Bay of Bengal, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Odisha.

“We expect monsoon to arrive in Jharkhand around June 22. If that happens monsoon would have a delayed its arrival this time in Jharkhand by 12 days,” explained S.D. Kotal, director of Ranchi Meteorological Centre, adding that as on Tuesday, the northern limit of monsoon (NLM) was passing through Mysore, Salem, Cuddalore, Alipurduar and Gangtok.

Kotal said the monsoon was expected to enter Jharkhand from somewhere between Sahebganj and Pakur and move towards central, southern and later north western parts of the state.

He also indicated that premonsoon showers would start over Jharkhand in the next 48 hours (June 20 onwards).

“Light rain and thunderstorms are likely at isolated places in the districts of western and southern Jharkhand in the next two days. After that both cloud and rainfall coverage area was expected to increase,” he explained.

The Ranchi Met office withdrew its heatwave alert on Tuesday, bringing to an end a weeklong spell of extreme discomfort that forced residents to stay indoors in the afternoons and prompted schools to extend summer vacations for primary students.

Weathermen said a trough at mean sea level was running from northeast Uttar Pradesh to north Bay of Bengal across Bihar, Jharkhand and Gangetic Bengal. A low pressure area was also likely to develop over north Bay of Bengal during the next three to four days.

On Tuesday, Capital Ranchi and its surrounding areas recorded a maximum temperature of around 37°C against Monday’s 37.3°C.

Palamau headquarters Daltonganj recorded around 40°C, three notches above normal. On Monday, Daltonganj had logged 41.4 °C. Jamshedpur, Chaibasa in West Singhbhum, Seraikela and several other places in the Kolhan region of southern Jharkhand recorded highs between 41° and 42°C, four notches above normal.

Met statistics revealed that several isolated places across Jharkhand, including Daltonganj and Garhwa, witnessed rain and thunder during the past 24 hours. Heatwave conditions also prevailed in isolated places in central and southern Jharkhand.

Onset of monsoon in Jharkhand likely by June 18

Source: hindustantimes.com

Jharkhand may expect the arrival of monsoon by June 18 as the southwest monsoon is likely to hit Kerala by June 8, weather officials said on Wednesday. Normal monsoon date for Jharkhand is June 10 and it should cover the state by June 15. However, it has never hit Jharkhand on the expected date since 2009.

The onset of monsoon in the state has been recorded between June 15 to June 25 in past one decade. In 2018, the southwest monsoon had hit Jharkhand on June 25, a delay of 15 days from its expected date, while it had hit Kerala on May 29, three days ahead of its normal date.

“Conditions are favourable for onset of monsoon in Kerala on Friday. If climatic conditions remain favourable with its current pattern, we may expect monsoon rain by June 17-18. However, it could be predicted only after it hits Kerala,” said SD Kotal, director of Ranchi Meteorological Centre. Even though the monsoon has been delayed by a week in India, a cyclonic circulation, which was over Jharkhand till Tuesday, brought relief from scorching heat across the state for last couple of days. Weather department said that excluding Palamu, maximum temperature was likely to get below 40 degree Celsius in most districts of the state.

The long-range forecast for monsoon, however, has worried farmers, as it has predicted 91% rainfall with possible deviation of 4% from June 1 to September 30 in northeast and eastern India.

“It’s a long-range forecast for the four-month monsoon, which may change after the onset,” Kotal said.

Farmers already faced drought in last kharif season due to deficient rainfall in last monsoon. In 2018, Jharkhand recorded 28% rainfall deficit during four-month monsoon period from June 1 to September 30, poorer than Bihar and West Bengal, which registered 25% and 20% deficit respectively.

The deficient rainfall impacted kharif crop in Jharkhand. The state government in November last year declared 129 blocks out of 264 blocks as drought affected. As many as 93 blocks were declared severely affected by drought due to poor sowing during rainy season last year.

Around 27% arable paddy land of the total target remained fallow. Of the 24 districts, sowing coverage could not reach 60% in seven districts even after the end of sowing season on August 15.

The centre released Rs 272 crore as drought relief to Jharkhand but the farmers are yet to get crop loss compensation. The poor monsoon had also impacted Rabi crops last year. Sowing coverage of Rabi crops was recorded in merely 7.58 hectares of land against the target of 11.69 lakh hectares this year.