The raging monsoon has dumped heavy to very heavy rainfall over Madhya Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh during the 24 hours ending Monday morning.

Heavy to very heavy rain was recorded at isolated places over Odisha and West Rajasthan while it was heavy over Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and South Interior Karnataka, an India Met Department (IMD) update said.

Strong monsoon

The strong monsoon is forecast to stay as such through the rest of the week as the Bay of Bengal remains in an animated state, spinning up rain-driving cyclonic circulations or the odd low-pressure area.

The land-based trough over Central India, the spine of the monsoon, is bubbling with activity with as many as three cyclonic circulations spread across its north-western (Rajasthan) and south-eastern (Odisha-Bengal-Jharkhand) ends. This is a rare sight to behold with ramifications for Central India, adjoining North Peninsula, East India and North-West India. Forecasts for the next two days given out by IMD are indicative of the ‘wet to very wet’ prospects.

Forecast for Tuesday spoke of heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls for Chhattisgarh; heavy to very heavy rainfall for Telangana, Madhya Maharashtra, Gujarat, Vidarbha, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Meghalaya.

Heavy rain

It would be heavy at isolated places over Coastal Karnataka, Konkan, Goa, Marathawada, Odisha, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

Strong winds with speeds reaching up to 50 km/hr have been warned of over the North Arabian Sea, Central and South-West Arabian Sea. Squally weather may prevail over Gujarat coast. Fishermen are advised not to venture into these areas.

Forecast for Wednesday said heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh; and heavy over Coastal Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Konkan, Goa, Madhya Maharashtra, Gujarat, Vidarbha, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, and the North-Eastern States.

Slow movement

Expectations of a full-fledged low-pressure area developing over the North-West Bay appears to have been discounted for now but that does not materially alter the rainfall scenario.

This is because even a rudimentary circulation is enough to kick up a lot of rain, given its comparably slow lateral movement (into Central, West and North-West India) and admirable staying power even as the seas feed oodles of moisture into it. According to the Climate Prediction Centre of the US National Weather Service, the proceedings might just get another boost after August 5 with the expected formation of an intense ‘low’ in the Bay.

It would likely track almost along a straight line across Central India into West India and keep its intensity as such until it reaches Gujarat over a period of four to five days