The Hindu Business Line : `Best weather' brewing for crops in TN, northern plains

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`Best weather' brewing for crops in TN, northern plains

Vinson Kurian

Thiruvananthapuram , Dec. 4

Standing crops in the plains of North India and Tamil Nadu in the South could not possibly have asked for better weather than what is forecast to evolve during the rest of the week and into the next.

"Just what the weatherman ordered" is how Dr Akhilesh Gupta of the Department of Science and Technology chose to describe the brewing conditions. For one, light to moderate rains from a prevailing western disturbance would see the Rabi crop in the north good stead.

For another, a remnant of a previously strong storm, Durian, is expected to sneak its way into the Bay of Bengal as an easterly wave (not a conventional `low'). It is likely to impact the Tamil Nadu coast by Saturday - at least two days earlier than previously thought.

This is because an easterly wave travels very fast generating weather up front. In the instant case, the wave is seen as traversing an estimated 1,500-km stretch of seawaters from the Andaman Sea to the Tamil Nadu coast in 48 to 72 hours.

FAIR SPREAD

And this is one reason why the system may fail to intensify beyond a point. The significant feature is that it will generate widespread, but not entirely heavy, rain over entire Tamil Nadu, south coastal Andhra Pradesh and parts of Kerala for 48 hours from Saturday.

It is seen as a godsend for standing crops, coming as it does after a break of two weeks. Almost all reservoirs in Tamil Nadu are full now, and the State can do without the torrential rainfall normally associated with northeast monsoon.

In the north, the rains are just about as timely, since farmers have lately been faced with a situation where they would be required to provide supplementary irrigation to sown crops.

Moisture stress has been building since mid-November by when early sowing was completed. The looming rains will now save these farmers a lot of trouble, Dr Gupta said.

REPEAT SYSTEM

The farmers in the north can possibly look to an encore performance, since a follow-up westerly system with almost similar features and potency is expected to spin in from the northwest by Sunday.

It is as well expected to throw up an induced cyclonic circulation, promising rain and showers in the region. According to Dr Gupta, mercury will fall to the ideal levels immediately on passage of this system.

FARMER CONCERNS

This should help allay the concerns of farmers, who fear that a rising trend in temperatures associated with the approach of a western disturbance might harm standing crops. Temperatures are known to plunge with the eastward passage of the `convective front' of the system.

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