Omirgam city recorded heavy rainfall, receiving 1,064 mm of rain in the 24 hours up to 8:30 am on July 23.
NEW DELHI: Umergam in Gujarat’s Valsad district recorded heavy rainfall, receiving 1,064 mm of rain in the 24 hours up to 8:30 am on July 23 – the third highest 24-hour rainfall ever in the country – the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday.
The IMD attributed this to a combination of weather systems – a monsoon trough, widespread cyclonic circulation, and western disturbances – all of which feed moisture into south Gujarat.
The highest daily rainfall on record was 1,563.3 mm on 16 June 1995 at Sohra (widely known as Cherrapunji), while the second highest was at Aminedevi (Lakshadweep), where 1,168.5 mm was recorded on 6 May 2004. Forecasts indicate that active monsoon conditions are likely to persist in northwest, central and northern peninsular neighboring India and east and north-eastern India. She added that within the next three or four days.
The IMD said in its bulletin that a large-scale cyclonic circulation of upper air – present in the lower and middle tropospheric levels was over central MP on July 22, and turned westward towards southeastern Rajasthan. At the same time, the monsoon trough was south of its natural position, passing through Bikaner, Banastali Vidyapeeth, Guna, Damoh, Bandra Road, Medinipur and thence south-eastwards towards the north-eastern Bay of Bengal and tilting southwards with height. “A western disturbance also occurred in the form of upper air cyclonic circulation over Jammu and adjoining region and interacted with the monsoon circulation,” the IMD said, noting that all this affected Gujarat.
With moisture persisting through these weather systems, the rainfall will now move north across north Gujarat to Rajasthan on Friday, experts said.
“Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely with very heavy rainfall at isolated places over Konkan and Goa, and over Gujarat region, southeast Rajasthan and Madhya Maharashtra,” the IMD said for 24 hours till Friday. For Valsad, an orange alert has been issued for Friday, as the IMD is still expecting heavy to very heavy rains in isolated pockets there. On Saturday, a yellow alert was issued, however, heavy rain may continue in some pockets.
“The intensity will decrease on Friday, as this atmospheric activity moves towards Rajasthan. Late Wednesday and early Thursday, this was affecting south Gujarat,” said Mahesh Palawat, Vice President, Skymet. He said this was due to intense cyclonic circulation over southeastern Rajasthan and neighboring states of Gujarat and MP, with wind shear zone also present there. “We have also witnessed strong wet incursion from the Arabian Sea, with persistent moisture arriving around Valsad and other parts of south Gujarat,” he added.
The IMD added that faint rains are likely over southern peninsular India during the next seven days.
Heavy rainfall has helped reduce India’s overall monsoon deficit to some extent. It reached -17%, down from -24% on July 19.
The IMD said in its July forecast that rainfall is below normal – 94% less than the LPA forecast. Overall, the International Meteorological Institute expects monsoon rainfall this year to reach 90% of LPA, leading up to El Niño.
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