Nagpur: Monsoon arrived almost 10 days late, and the rains in June were below normal. But then the Southwest Monsoon in July made up for the backlog in Nagpur and East Vidarbha. Most of the districts have witnessed excess monsoon rains so far. Nagpur district has recorded the rainfall excess by at least 27% till July 31.
In the last one week, heavy and continuous rains have overcome the deficit in Nagpur district. Nagpur district witnessed 625.9 mm rainfall in July which is 27% excess of 491.2 mm of normal rainfall.
Overall, Vidarbha received 664.6 mm rainfall in the first half of monsoon which is 37% above the normal rains. Gadchiroli, Wardha, Chandrapur, Bhandara and Nagpur districts recorded rainfall excess of at least 27% till July 31. The normal rainfall for the first half of monsoon in Gadchiroli is 655.3 mm. However, Gadchiroli has already received 1034.3 mm rainfall to date which is 58% above normal across Vidarbha.
The situation of Chandrapur is also no different. It received 846.4 mm of rainfall so far against 551.7 mm of normal rains, which is 53% above normal rainfall in the first half of the Southwest Monsoon. Wardha district which received less rains in June, is now listed second among the highest rainfall districts of Vidarbha region. Wardha got 57% above normal rainfall in July with 695.7 mm actual rains. Similarly, Bhandara district also received 32% above normal rainfall which was struggling to get rains in June.
In Vidarbha, almost all districts received excess rainfall till July end except Amravati (1%) and Gondia (3%) which received normal rainfall in the first half of the Southwest Monsoon. The Southwest Monsoon is now entering in the second half from August 1 and there is no respite from rains in Vidarbha as India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall very likely to occur at isolated places over Vidarbha in coming days.
The weather department issued ‘Orange Alert’ for Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and Gondia districts on August 1 and 2 and ‘Orange Alert’ for Wardha on August 2 as heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places over these three districts. Similarly, it also issued ‘Yellow Alert’ on August 1 as moderate to heavy rainfall was very likely to occur at isolated places over Nagpur, Bhandara, Wardha and Yavatmal districts.
The ‘Yellow Alert’ will remain the same for August 2 also for all these districts. According to the Weather Department, “The cyclonic circulation over Jharkhand and neighbourhood now lies over Gangetic West Bengal and neighbourhood and extended upto 3.1 km above mean sea level. Due to this weather development the monsoon will become active on August 1.”
