Punjab farmers worried as wet spell expected till April 25

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 19

Farmers are a worried lot as the weather department has extended its forecast for the ongoing spell of rainfall over northwest India till April 25. On April 17, the weatherman had predicted rain and thunderstorms in the region till April 21.

State may see deficient rainfall this month

• In April, the state remained rain deficient. From April 1 to April 18, the state received 1.8 mm rainfall against the long period average of 10.8 mm, accounting for a shortfall of 83 per cent
• The minimum temperature recorded in Punjab during the past 24 hours ranged from 21.1°C at Gurdaspur to 25.6°C at Amritsar, which was above normal at a few places by up to 6.5 degrees

“A fresh western disturbance is likely to affect northwest India from April 22,” a bulletin issued by the Meteorological Department stated. “Under its influence, scattered rainfall accompanied by thunderstorm, lightning and gusty winds with speeds of 30-40 kmph is expected over Punjab during April 19-22,” it added.

Scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall and snowfall accompanied with thunderstorm, lightning and gusty winds are also likely over Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal on April 19-20 and isolated to scattered rainfall during April 21-25, the bulletin said.

According to IMD, a western disturbance as a cyclonic circulation is prevailing over north Pakistan and neighbourhood in middle and upper tropospheric westerlies, and an induced cyclonic circulation lies over Pakistan and adjoining Punjab in lower tropospheric levels.

These weather systems are being cited as the reason for the current bouts of rain over parts of northwest India. During the past 24 hours, some areas of Punjab received varying amounts of rain. Sharp showers, along with strong winds, were also briefly experienced briefly on Friday evening.

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