Dark clouds hover over Visakhapatnam city on Tuesday, August 10.
(Nalam Kanaka/TOI, BCCL, Visakhapatnam)
Thursday, August 12: In this southwest monsoon season, parts of south India have been experiencing sporadic bouts of heavy rains. After a brief period of active rainfall activity, the region witnessed some respite from the incessant rains since the last week of July. As per the latest forecasts, wet weather conditions are likely to make a comeback over some parts of the southern peninsula over the next few days.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rains, thunderstorms and lightning over parts of southern India for the next few days. As per the daily bulletin of the national forecaster, a north-south trough or line of convergence runs from above a cyclonic circulation over Bihar to north Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover, this weekend, a fresh cyclonic circulation is set to form over the west-central Bay of Bengal. As the system moves northwestward toward Andhra Pradesh by Tuesday, isolated heavy rains can be expected over the eastern coastal region. Therefore, chances of heavy rains and strong surface winds persist over parts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha from Sunday onwards.
According to the IMD, scattered to widespread rainfall is possible over Tamil Nadu and Kerala during the next 4-5 days. Meanwhile, isolated heavy showers have been forecast over Tamil Nadu between August 12 to 14.
Accordingly, IMD has issued a yellow watch over Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Coastal Andhra Pradesh for August 12. This level of advisory instructs people to ‘be aware’ of the local weather situation. All these places are likely to witness heavy rains and thunderstorms on Friday. Thereafter, Tamil Nadu and Coastal Andhra Pradesh continue under yellow watch till August 16.
In the last 24 hours, rains and thunderstorms were observed in parts of Coastal Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal and Kerala, as well as isolated places of interior Karnataka and Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
In terms of total rainfall figures during this southwest season, southern states have recorded varied numbers. From June 1 to August 11, Telangana and Tamil Nadu have recorded ‘excess’ rainfall of 575 mm and 207mm compared to their respective long term average of 450 and 150 mm, respectively.
On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh (322 mm) and Karnataka (584 mm) witnessed ‘normal’ precipitation figures. Meanwhile, at 1136 mm, Kerala recorded 26% below normal rainfall in this time frame.
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