Itanagar, April 08: While isolated showers have been drenching Northeast India throughout this week, a fresh rain spell is on the cards this weekend, as widespread rainfall has been forecast over three states in the region on Friday and Saturday, April 9-10.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a trough in the westerlies is currently running at 3.1 km above mean sea level. As this system moves eastwards over the next 24 hours, it will gain support from the moisture invading the land from the Bay of Bengal.
Under the influence of these meteorological conditions, fairly widespread to widespread rainfall, along with thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds blowing at the speed of 30-40 kmph, are all very likely over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya on Friday and Saturday.
Moreover, isolated heavy showers are particularly on the cards across the state of Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday, April 10.
In view of these predictions, the IMD has issued a yellow watch over all three states on both Friday and Saturday, with the advisory urging residents to ‘be aware’ of the local weather situation.
Similar conditions are also expected over these states on Wednesday and Thursday, April 7-8, although the precipitation is likely to go up a notch in terms of intensity as well as distribution come Friday.
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In fact, as per IMD observations, rainfall and thundershowers were recorded in isolated places within Assam and Meghalaya on Tuesday, April 6 as well.
Meanwhile, owing to the wet weather, the maximum daytime temperatures across the Northeast are also likely to remain low. This would mark a stark contrast against the rest of the country, where the mercury levels are expected to exceed 40°C in several areas.
In spite of repeated rain events over the Northeast since the beginning of the pre-monsoon season on March 1, however, the precipitation recorded within the states in the region varies to a great extent.
While Meghalaya has received 13% higher-than-normal rainfall worth 133.7 mm between March 1 and April 6, both Assam (58.8 mm) and Arunachal Pradesh (144.7 mm) have registered ‘deficits’ beyond 40% as compared to their respective long-term average rain figures for this period.