Unseasonal Rain-Thundershowers Over Central And Eastern Parts, Freak Hailstorm Likely

An unseasonal rainy spell is approaching the central and eastern parts of the country. The activity will commence tomorrow and keep shifting pockets, till mid-week next. Stormy conditions will start with Maharashtra and spread across, covering Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. Interior parts of Odisha may also have isolated weather activity for a day or two, during this period.

Maharashtra and East Madhya Pradesh generally remain far from the reach of the weather systems of North India. South Peninsula, as such, has negligible weather activity around this time. Therefore, any such weather activity gets graded as unseasonal for these parts, albeit these are welcome showers to break the stigma of long and dry weather conditions.

An in-situ cyclonic circulation is coming up over northern parts of Madhya Maharashtra, Southwest Madhya Pradesh and neighbourhood on 10^th Feb. This feature will shift eastward the next day. Subsequently, it will keep on meandering in the same region with a little shift, here and there. Another significant feature is the seasonal anticyclone over the central parts which has now been displaced more along the coast and adjoining parts of the Bay of Bengal. This will be fueling moist air over the central parts during this episode. Under the combined influence of cyclonic circulation and anticyclone, unseasonal activity will take place over central and eastern parts of the country.

The weather sequence will start with Vidarbha and Marathwada on 10^th Feb and extend further to South Chhattisgarh and Southwest Madhya Pradesh, the next day.  On 12^th Feb, activity will vacate Maharashtra and cover large parts of East Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In the following two days, the sporadic rains will reach up to East Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Weather activity will include thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and strong gusty winds. Isolated hailstorms can not be ruled out, embedded in the tall convective clouds. However, the spread and duration may not be large of the hailstorm activity.

The weather conditions will improve on 15^th Feb. But, the broad clearance can be expected on 16^th Feb only. Subsequent days will have the remnant cold effect of the rains and a fair amount of sunshine, raising the day temperatures, sharply.