2-day rainfall amount (mm) from Wednesday to Thursday.
(TWC Met Team)
Wednesday, September 1: With only half of the average monsoon rainfall in the first three months, Gujarat is the state with the maximum rain deficit in the country at the end of August! Now, the state is set to begin the last month of the southwest monsoon season, on a wet note with forecasts suggesting heavy rains in the region.
The parts of Gujarat are set to witness inclement weather conditions as incessant heavy rains batter the state for the next 48 hours. The TWC met team highlights that a cyclonic circulation over southern Gujarat will trigger the downpour as it moves to the west coast and stalls over the region for a few days.
The impacts of the system are already apparent, with the city of Daman registering extremely heavy rains of 217 mm over the last 24 hours till Wednesday morning. Parts of Gujarat like Surat, Bhavnagar and Veraval also reported around 50 mm rainfall during the previous 24 hours.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has also forecast heavy rains in parts of Gujarat and the surrounding Saurashtra region under the influence of this system. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Saurashtra and Kutch region could register a daily rainfall accumulation of 100- 150 mm. Likewise, isolated very heavy showers might continue over Gujarat on Wednesday and Thursday, reveal multiple forecasts.
Accordingly, IMD has placed an orange alert over Gujarat and Saurashtra for Wednesday and Thursday. This level of advisory urges residents to ‘be prepared’ for the rough weather conditions.
Districts, namely Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Aravalli, Kheda, Anand, Baroda, Broach, Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Dadara Nagar Naveli and Daman, could particularly witness isolated very heavy rains over the next two days.
In the last 24 hours, heavy rainfall occurred at isolated places in the Valsad district of the South Gujarat region, while rains occurred at most areas of the Gujarat region and a few places over Saurashtra. Ahmedabad received light rains of around 10 mm on Tuesday and is forecast to witness generally rainy skies as well as heavy rains till Thursday.
This active wet spell may help the state bridge the widening rainfall gap, which is falling short by 50%. In this southwest monsoon season, Gujarat has collectively recorded a ‘deficient’ amount of rain at 294 mm against its long term average of 584 mm between June 1 to August 31.
All the 21 districts of the state have recorded a ‘deficient’ amount of rain in the first three months of the southwest monsoon season. The most rainfall deficit districts are Ahmedabad, Aravalli, and Gandhinagar, which fall under the ‘large deficient’ category.
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