The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday forecast heatwave conditions over Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the next five days, indicating a slight delay in land preparation for the forthcoming kharif crops, such as paddy and pulses.
The Met department has urged farmers in these regions to commence harvesting of summer sown paddy, pulses and groundnut crops to save them from heatwaves. Farmers have been asked to provide irrigation to the paddy nursery for minimising the impact of the hot weather conditions.
Officials said that armers should not commence kharif crops sowing activities till the heat waves wanes.
IMD has said that “heatwave to severe heat wave conditions” prevailed for the last six days in some pockets of Bihar and West Bengal, both key paddy-growing states.
Meanwhile, the department has also predicted a depression over southeast Arabian Sea, which is likely to move nearly northwards and intensify into a cyclonic storm over Arabian Sea during the next 12 hours. Stating that there has been some increase of rainfall activity over Kerala, the IMD said that cyclonic storm is likely to influence the progress of south-west monsoon.
It will provide an update on monsoon on Wednesday.
Private weather forecasting agency Skymet in its forecast said that during the next 24 hours, light to moderate rain with one or two heavy spells is possible over Lakshadweep, Kerala, coastal and South Interior Karnataka, Andaman, and Nicobar Islands.
After missing its earlier forecast of the southwest monsoon onset over Kerala coast on Sunday, the weather department has refrained from providing a definite forecast of the start of the seasonal rains, which account for 75% of the country’s annual rainfall.
No change has, however, been made to the IMD’s April 11 forecast that the precipitation this year would be in the “normal” range, at the 96% of the long-period average (LPA) Skymet had earlier said monsoon precipitation this year could be “below normal” at 94% of the LPA. Rainfall between 96-104% of the LPA is considered “normal”.
Monsoon normally sets in over Kerala on June 1, with a standard deviation of about seven days. In the last 10 years, the earliest arrival was in 2018 and 2022 (May 29), and the most delayed onset was in 2019 (June 8).
The IMD’s forecast last month for the onset of monsoon over Kerala coast on June 4 had an error margin of four days. Skymet had earlier predicted the monsoon onset on June 7, with an error margin of three days. “The southwest monsoon is likely to arrive within this bracket,” it had said.