The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for extremely heavy rainfall over Kerala from May 20-21. The southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka are also likely to witness heavy rainfall in the next four days. The weather agency has also forecasted heatwaves for the next five days in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh and Bihar will likely witness heatwaves for the next four days.
In its special message on Friday, IMD informed of a cyclonic circulation that lies over south Tamil Nadu and its neighbourhood in lower tropospheric levels and another over Rayalaseema and adjoining north Tamil Nadu in lower and middle tropospheric levels. The weather agency said that a trough running from south Chhattisgarh to the Comorin area in lower tropospheric levels, under whose influence, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal, Kerala, and Mahe, Lakshadweep, south Karnataka are likely to witness fairly widespread to widespread light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds of 40-50 kmph.
Isolated to scattered light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds of 30-40 kmph over Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam, Telangana and Rayalaseema have also been predicted for the next 7 days. An orange alert has been issued for very heavy rainfall over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal from May 17-21 and over Kerala and Mahe from May 17-19. At the same time, the orange alert was issued over South Interior Karnataka for May 20-21.
Senior IMD scientist Dr Naresh Kumar told the news agency ANI that the weather agency has predicted heavy to very heavy rains in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and South Karnataka in the next five days. “Continuous western disturbances influenced Northwest India from April until the last few days, causing isolated rainfall in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.”
Kumar also told ANI that temperatures are likely to reach as high as 45 degrees Celcius in several states in May. “Even today, the temperature has already reached 45 degrees Celcius in Rajasthan. In Punjab and Haryana, the temperature is also near 44 degrees Celcius, and the conditions of the heatwave are similar to Uttar Pradesh,” he said. “Heatwave is likely in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh for the next five days and in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar for four days. After that, there may be mild thunderstorms, which may cause the temperature to drop slightly,” he added.
According to the IMD bulletin, heatwave conditions will likely affect parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh in the next five days. Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha will also likely witness heatwaves on May 20-21.
