The Hindu Business Line : Stubborn `low' could hinder heating of landmass

Thiruvananthapuram April 13 The low-pressure area over the southwest Bay of Bengal off Sri Lanka is keeping a stubborn presence helped in no small measure by the broader trough in the Bay and hit-or-miss visitations of cloud bands from the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the global band of `low'.

Tagged `96B Invest' by the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre, the `low' showed an inclination to move south-southeast of Sri Lanka on Friday in line for a prospective merger with the larger ITCZ.

But a passing easterly wave could heave the entire formation in a west-northwest direction to take it back to where it originally belonged - over Sri Lanka and the extreme southern peninsular tip of India, said Dr K.J. Ramesh of the Department of Science and Technology.

SURFACE HEATING

But he was of the opinion that persistent thundershowers could interfere with the heating of the landmass, a necessary condition for helpful surface low-pressure to build to make the way for incoming monsoon currents.

For the fourth consecutive day, thundershowers, isolated in the south while fairly widespread in the northeast, contrasted with the building heat wave in the north and northwest of the country. Hot air from this region is blowing against a mass of moist-laden winds from the Bay of Bengal to create unsettled weather in the east of the country.

An Ohio State University update said that a trough that ran from Orissa to south Tamil Nadu now extended from west Madhya Pradesh, passing through Vidarbha, Marathwada, Telengana and Rayalaseema. The other trough from east Madhya Pradesh to Assam/Meghalaya also persisted.

RAINS VS HEAT WAVE

According to Mr Jim Andrews of AccuWeather.com, the broad but weak low pressure is going to kick off widely separated thunderstorms over the south and east of the country through the start of the next week as well. But he expected the northern plains to heat up to as high as 46 to 49 deg C in isolated cases.

Heat wave conditions have extended into some more parts of Rajasthan and Haryana during the past 24 hours. However, no significant change in day temperature is likely over northwest and central India during the next 2-3 days.

India Meteorological Department said that the `low' in the southwest Bay is likely to cause scattered rain/thundershower over the extreme south peninsula during the next 2-3 days.

The current meteorological analysis suggests a decrease in ongoing rainfall activity over the Northeastern States for next three days from Saturday. However, rainfall activity is likely to increase along the east coast of India, especially over the coastal areas of Orissa and West Bengal during the period.

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