Vibha Sharma
Chandigarh, on August 14th.
The rain is causing a lot of damage in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) said that there will continue to be very heavy rain in some parts of these two states for the next 24 hours, but it will decrease a lot after that.
The weather office previously forecasted heavy rain for only Uttrakhand on August 11. However, today they announced that there was heavy rain in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Rishikesh (Dehradun) experienced very heavy rainfall of 42 cm during that time.
IMD forecast
The IMD has forecasted that there will be light to moderate rainfall in different parts of Jammu division today, with some areas experiencing heavy rain. Today and tomorrow, Himachal Pradesh, which has been experiencing heavy rain, will continue to receive rain. Uttarakhand will get rain until August 18th.
The weather department said that there will be very heavy rainfall in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in the next 24 hours. However, the rainfall will decrease significantly starting from tomorrow.
Starting today—August 14, there will be more rain in eastern and central parts of India. There will be less rain in most parts of the country for the next 4-5 days.
The monsoon trough is the area where the monsoon winds are located.
Heavy rains in the hills happen because of where the monsoon trough is positioned near the bottom of the Himalayas. IMD officials said that the winds from the southwest part of the Arabian Sea are hitting the foothills of the Himalayas.
Currently, the monsoon trough is located above its usual position. It is predicted to move slowly towards the south and be near its usual position by August 18th.
There is a rotating system of winds over southern Bangladesh and nearby areas in the lower and middle parts of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The weather office said that a new Western Disturbance, which is a change in the winds in the middle part of the atmosphere, is currently happening. This year, the weather office has been surprised by the Southwest Monsoon season from June to September multiple times.
On August 11, the IMD had predicted that Uttarakhand would experience heavy rainfall. The weather forecast said that Uttarakhand will have very heavy rain between August 12 and 14, while the rest of northwest India will have light rain.
2023 will be a year with many unexpected things happening.
The Southwest Monsoon is unpredictable every year, but this year’s 2023 season has really confused the predictors, making us doubt the IMD’s ability to predict the weather. Besides the amount of rainfall, the start and progress of the rain has surprised the people who predict the weather.
The IMD had predicted that there would be 96% of the normal amount of rain in the country this season. However, they also warned that the El Niño phenomenon could cause problems during the second half of the four-month season.
The forecast for the northwest says there will be average to below average rainfall.
The area ended up being different than expected. It got too much rain, which caused sudden floods and landslides. This resulted in damage to buildings and roads in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh in July.
Since June, 48 districts in the country have received a lot of rain, especially in the northwest. These districts include two in Punjab, Chandigarh, eight in Himachal Pradesh, four in Haryana, eight in Rajasthan, two in Ladakh, two in J&K, Delhi, four in Uttarakhand, five in Uttar Pradesh, and six in Gujarat.
109 districts in the country have gotten too much rain, while 303 districts have had normal amounts of rain.
The monsoon rains are not evenly distributed.
However, even though there has been a lot of chaos caused by rain in many areas, one-third of the country is still facing a problem of not having enough or any rain. According to the IMD, there are currently 240 districts with a lack of rainfall and 15 districts with a severe lack of rainfall.
Experts are saying we need to improve our ability to make predictions about the weather for the upcoming 2023 season.
This is especially important because of climate change, changing weather patterns, and India relying heavily on the seasonal rains.
