March had commenced on a rainy note with widespread rain across the country. Now April follows suit and goes the March way as rain is likely in most parts of the country for the first few days of the month. However, the intensity and spread of rainfall will be less than last month.
Rain in North India
As reiterated by Skymet, it has already started raining in Jammu and Kashmir. There was very short respite of 24 hours after the spell of record breaking rain created havoc in the state. Heavy to very heavy rain broke several records. For instance Batote, from 8.30 am on Sunday recorded 124.4 mm of rain, breaking the ten-year-old record of 115.9 mm.
Just as the situation in flood-hit Kashmir Valley started improving, it started raining once again. Several teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Army was pressed in for rescue operations. However, recovery work has to be stopped once again as the intensity of rain is likely to increase over the next two days.
The rain belt will extend by 2nd of April to cover Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and northern parts of Madhya Pradesh. These areas will receive rain for about 48 hours and rainfall is likely to reduce by the 4th of April.
Rain in Northeast India
Northeastern states are also witnessing a rainy spell. A low-level cyclonic circulation over West Bengal and adjoining Bihar and Jharkhand coupled with an anti-cyclonic circulation over Bay of Bengal, is finally bringing some good showers in the region.
On Monday Dhubri in Assam recorded 30 mm of rain and Tinsukia 22 mm. In Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang received 16 mm, while Cherrapunji in Meghalaya received 6.4 mm.
On Tuesday, several places in Arunachal Pradesh received good showers. Itanagar recorded 14 mm of rain, Passighat 33 mm and Tawang 4 mm. Silchar and Lumding in Assam received 13.2 mm and 14.2 mm, respectively.
Rain in South India
Pre-monsoon activity has picked up in the Peninsular India and is expected to continue for the next 2 days. In a span of 24 hours from 8.30 am on Tuesday, Karnataka received widespread rain. Bangalore recorded 1.2 mm, Mandya 17 mm, Madikeri 4 mm and Belgaum 3.7 mm of rain. In Kerala, Alapuzha recorded 18.6 mm, Kochi 0.8 and Punalur 0.6 mm of rain. Kanyakumari and Palayamkottai received 7.2 mm and 19 mm of rain, respectively.
