NEW DELHI: Rainfall and thunderstorms will likely bring temporary respite in several parts of the country, especially East, Central and Peninsular India, that have been reeling under heat wave for the past week.
The region is set to receive moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, gusty winds and hail storms.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), however, has warned of damage to plantation, horticulture and standing crops. Besides, the season is known for significant lightning incidents causing loss of human and animal lives in the open. Moreover, two back-to-back Western Disturbances are expected to bring light snowfall on the higher altitudes of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and moderate rainfall in the Northwest region from April 10 and another from April 13.
Notably, the central wheat crop belt, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western UP, will start wheat harvest from the second week of April. However, widespread rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning will likely damage ready-to-harvest crops. In the meantime, heatwave-like conditions will likely prevail in isolated pockets of North Tamil Nadu, South Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Interior Karnataka. The hot and humid weather will likely prevail over Kerala Mahe, coastal Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
A cyclonic circulation lies over east Assam in lower tropospheric levels, which will likely bring widespread moderate rainfall in the plains and snowfall in higher altitudes over Arunachal Pradesh this week, the weather office observed.
The rainfall will accompany thunderstorms and lightning over sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam and Meghalaya and Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. A trough runs from interior Odisha to north Tamil Nadu across Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha and interior Karnataka in lower tropospheric levels will bring widespread moderate rainfall in sweltering Odisha, Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh, among other parts.
Wheat harvest from April
The central wheat crop belt, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western UP, will start wheat harvest from the second week of April. However, widespread rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning will likely damage ready-to-harvest crops.In the meantime, heatwave-like conditions will likely prevail in isolated pockets of North Tamil Nadu, South Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.