As Earth warms up, heavy Rainfall expected to Lash large Parts of the CountryJul 06, 2018
India Meteorological Department (IMD), predicted heavy to very heavy rains at a few places including Uttarakhand, east Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Gujarat. IMD has issued warnings of cyclonic circulations over the northeast Arabian Sea off north Gujarat coast at upper levels and the east-central Arabian Sea off south Maharashtra coast at a higher level.
In an official statement, weather department in Mumbai said, "The off-shore trough at mean sea level from south Gujarat coast to north Kerala coast now runs from south Maharashtra Coast to Kerala coast. This situation is very likely to cause heavy to very heavy rainfall along the west coast of India and parts of Gujarat on day 1."
“The number of days with heavy rainfall is increasing and the number of days with light rainfall is decreasing,” M Mohapatra, senior official at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said. “The same amount rainfall is happening over a few days.”
For tomorrow, the IMD said heavy to very heavy rains, with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places, are likely over Assam and Meghalaya.
Heavy to very heavy rain is also expected for tomorrow at isolated places over east Uttar Pradesh, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Bihar.
The four-month monsoon season normally begins from June 1 and ends on September 30.
The India Meteorological Department on June 29 said that the monsoon has covered the entire country, 17 days ahead of its normal onset date.
The monsoon reached Sri Ganganagar, its last outpost in the country located in west Rajasthan. Its normal date to reach Sri Ganganagar was July 15.
This year, monsoon touched Kerala on May 29 , three days ahead of its normal onset date of June 1. It battered the western coast in the first half of June. It reached Delhi on June 28.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Syed Abid Rasheed Shah said the people living in low-lying areas and embankments of river Jhelum in Srinagar were requested to be alert and prepared for evacuation.
"We have issued a flood alert for low-lying areas of Srinagar," he added.
The officials have also issued an alert as the Darhali River in Rajouri overflowed on Friday due to heavy rainfall.
While the water level at Sangam at 10 am this morning was 23.06 feet - still above the critical mark - the water has started receding there. At 9 am the water level there was 23.16 feet.
Sonam Lotus, Director of the MET department, said the weather is likely to improve towards the afternoon.
On Friday, a landslide at Gangroo near Ramsu along the 260-km long Jammu-Srinagar national highway - the only all-weather road connecting Kashmir with rest of the country left hundreds of vehicles, including the convoy carrying Amarnath pilgrims, stranded.
The rising water levels induced fear among the valley residents of a re-run of 2014 floods that caused widespread devastation and left over 300 persons dead.
“Increasing trends in daily extreme precipitation in India have been observed during the recent 46 decades,” a recent paper said. “Moreover, urban areas in India have witnessed 47 eccentric precipitation extremes in the past, which have affected human lives and infrastructure.”
India has reported 285 floods between the year 1950 and 2017, and this has impacted 850 million people, left 19 million homeless and killed about 71,000. Scientists are worried thinking if extreme precipitation becomes the reason for heavy rainfall and the same cause flash floods, which is detrimental to infrastructure.
Incidences of extreme rainfall, that precipitates flooding, are projected to increase as the planet warms. India is not just highly prone to weather-related disasters, its high population density and poor infrastructure also puts its people at higher risk.