IMD’s rain red alert for Maharashtra, Gujarat today; showers likely in Delhi-NCR
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its latest forecast issued a red alert for parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa for Saturday amid predictions of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in the area.
IMD predicted that intense rainfall will continue to lash Gujarat and south peninsular India till Sunday. The low pressure area formed over the Bay of Bengal transformed into a depression on Tuesday, and the system moved upwards towards Odisha. The depression was located close to Puri, Gopalpur and Paradip, and is slowly moving towards the northwestern-western areas.
“The system is expected to move northwestwards and cross the Odisha coast, near Puri, as a depression on Saturday morning. Thereafter, it would further move west-northwestwards across Odisha – Chhattisgarh and weaken gradually,” IMD’s Friday forecast said.
In view of the depression’s landward movement, the weather agency issued a red alert for Telangana, central Maharashtra, coastal Goa, and Gujarat for Saturday. Meanwhile, an orange alert was issued in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Kutch and Saurashtra for the weekend.
It is likely that 115-120 mm of rainfall will lash these areas over the next 24 hours. IMD’s forecast also said that moderate to heavy rain will prevail in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and eastern Rajasthan for the next three days.
The IMD further issued a ‘signal 3’ warning in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh as heavy downpour continues to lash the state. The signal 3 port warning was issued in Kalingapatnam, Visakhapatnam, and Kakinada, warning vessels of a possible cyclonic storm.
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh experienced heavy rainfall on Friday, with school holidays declared in several areas as rainwater seeped into homes and flooded the streets.
Meanwhile, the weather agency predicted that light, isolated rainfall will continue in Delhi for three days. The maximum temperature in Delhi-NCR is predicted to be around 36 degrees Celsius on Saturday, and light rain is predicted in the capital in July 21 and 22.
The all-India rainfall stood at 324.4mm from June 1 to July 19, which was quantitatively 98 percent of normal for this time of the year. At least 15 states and Union Territories have recorded normal or above normal rainfall till now.