After a long spell of a heatwave across the country, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a wet spell over northwest and east India from May 21 to May 24, which will reach peak intensity on Monday (May 23).
Cloudy skies and thunderstorms brought slight relief to Delhiites on Saturday as the maximum temperature in the city remained at 42.4 degrees Celsius, the weather office said. The minimum temperature settled at 29 degrees Celsius.
For the next five days, scattered to fairly widespread light/moderate rainfall with isolated thunderstorm/lightning/gusty winds are likely over Bihar, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha, the IMD stated.
The MeT department also said dust storm activity at isolated places is very likely over west Rajasthan between May 22 and 24. The department predicted strong surface winds at a speed of 30 to 40 kilometres per hour over the western state.
“Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand may have fairly widespread to widespread light/moderate rainfall with isolated thunderstorm/lightning/gusty winds,” the IMD tweeted.
Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Malappuram and Kozhikode districts were under yellow alert for Saturday, whereas Wayanad has a yellow alert on May 22 as well.
This year, the IMD had earlier predicted the first showers of the southwest monsoon or ‘Edavapathy’ in Kerala by May 27, five days earlier than the normal onset date.
Heavy rains wreak havoc in the east
Torrential rains started lashing Bihar and Assam over the past few days, resulting in a flood situation. More than 7 lakh people have been affected across 29 districts of Assam and a total of 11 deaths have been recorded since May 13.
On Friday, Chinook heavy-lift helicopters were deployed to help National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel in Haflong city in Assam’s Dima Hasao district to help evacuate the people stranded due to flood and landslides in the area.
In Bihar, as many as 33 people across the 16 districts were killed in storms and lightning till Friday. Chief minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex gratia of ₹4 lakh to families of those who have died.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the deaths. “Deeply saddened to know about the number of deaths due to thunderstorm and lightning in several districts of Bihar. May God give strength to the bereaved families to bear this immense loss,” he tweeted in Hindi.
“The local administration under the supervision of the state government is actively engaged in the relief and rescue work of the victims,” he added.
