Saturday, May 29: Parts of Northeast India are in for some more intense rainfall activity starting this Sunday, May 30, as heavy showers have been forecast in isolated parts of the region.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the humid southerly winds blowing in from the Bay of Bengal are likely to strengthen, and they will produce fairly widespread to widespread rains and thunderstorms over Northeast India from Sunday onwards.
The states of Sikkim, Assam and Meghalaya are particularly likely to experience heavy showers at isolated places from Sunday to Tuesday, while Arunachal Pradesh will witness isolated heavy rainfall on Monday.
In view of these predictions, the IMD has issued a yellow watch over the entire Northeast region from Sunday to Tuesday, with the advisory urging residents to ‘be aware’ of the local weather situation.
As per the IMD’s regional met centre in Guwahati, the districts within Assam that are prone to receiving heavy rainfall include Dhubri, South Salmaramankachar, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Nalbari, Kamrup (rural), Darrang, Udalguri, West Karbi Anglong, Karbi Anglong and Karimganj.
Apart from rainfall and thunderstorms, the aforementioned areas will also be bombarded with gusty winds blowing at speeds of 30 to 40 kmph.
As for Arunachal Pradesh, heavy rains will be focused on the districts of West Kameng, East Kameng, Papumpare, Upper Siang, East Siang, Lower Dibang Valley, Dibang Valley and Lohit on and around Monday.
The wet weather will also bring down the mercury levels in the region, and therefore, the maximum temperatures will remain below normal in this forecast period.
Northeast and adjoining East India have been on the receiving end of intense rainfall conditions since the start of this week, owing to the presence of Cyclone Yaas in the Bay of Bengal.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the pre-monsoon season over India on March 1, most of the northeastern states have received below-average rainfall for this period. Between March 1 and May 28, Arunachal Pradesh (534.2 mm) and Assam (304 mm) have both registered ‘deficit’ precipitation as compared to their respective long-term average figures.
On the other hand, Meghalaya (590.3 mm) has received ‘normal’ rainfall, whereas Sikkim has recorded ‘excess’ rains at 801.1 mm.
