The Indian Premier League is an annual event and a carnival for cricket fans across the globe. Cricketing maestros from all over the world get together and fight in a friendly banter in a series of 45 days. There’s no country spirit, but only the love for cricket that brings all these players together, divided in eight teams, ready to play their best.
This annual cricket event takes place in the months of April and May which also happen to be the Pre-Monsoon months. During this time, heat is at its peak along with which Pre-Monsoon rains are also seen in many parts of the country.
As far as the teams are concerned, there are eight teams including the Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals, and the Kings XI Punjab.
Each team has their home ground, which means matches are played in the cities of Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Jaipur, and Mohali. The cities of Pune and Indore also host a few matches at times. Thus, apart from Northeast India, the entire country hosts some or the other game.
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The Pre-Monsoon season sets in during the month of March. As April begins, it usually becomes hotter for most parts of the country. This period is known for intense weather activities in terms of rain, thunderstorm, hailstorm, dust storm as well as gale force winds in some parts.
These activities occur over the region on account of multiple weather systems. In North India, it is the Western Disturbance and the cyclonic circulations which cause rain over Delhi, Jaipur and Mohali. In fact, Indore also witnesses rains due to these very systems. East India which includes Kolkata remains under the influence of Kal Baisakhi which is associated with violent thunderstorm, lightning and squally winds. The anti-cyclone in the Bay also provides required moisture for such weather activities.
The semi-permanent feature during the Pre-Monsoon season which is the Peninsular trough keeps tilting and gives weather activity over Peninsular India including the cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The wind discontinuity which is seen over the southern parts has the capability to cause some weather over Pune.
There is another feature, the off-shore trough which extends along the West Coast but fails to reach until Mumbai. Thus, Mumbai happens to be the best location weather wise and otherwise as far as the IPL is concerned. It is followed by Pune where the weather activity is not at its peak.
Meanwhile, the city of Kolkata is where most of the weather activity takes place during this time. The city records 58.9 mm of rains in April followed by Bengaluru whose monthly rains for April stand at 41.5 mm. Similarly, the monthly rains for other cities are as follows: Pune 16.6 mm, Chennai 14.4 mm, Delhi 13 mm, Chandigarh 8.5 mm, and Mumbai 0 mm.
Talking about temperatures, all these locations except Bengaluru have seen maximums close to the 40-degree mark or even beyond that.
Talking about why Mumbai, the home ground of Mumbai Indians is the most preferred location for the Indian Premier League games, the city is located far too south of the systems that affect North India. The weather features that move across east to west in the southern parts also are far away. The Peninsular India trough also does not shift close enough to Mumbai. In fact, both the Peninsular India trough and the wind discontinuity do not affect the upside of the Western Ghats.
The presence of the Western Ghats restricts the reach of the system on the upside. The off-shore trough also does not affect Mumbai as it lies in the far end of the Western Ghats. The cyclone season has also begun but the frequency of cyclones in the Arabian Sea is far less as compared to the Bay of Bengal. There are only freak occurrences when the storm recurves towards Gujarat and Maharashtra which may result in some weather activity over Mumbai.
Thus, Mumbai remains the most favourite location for IPL, weather wise and otherwise. However, since the game extends until the end of May, some Pre-Monsoon showers towards the fag end of the tournament may cause some rains. Otherwise, rain gods are usually kind towards Mumbai.
Image Credit: GQIndia
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com
