An extended weather outlook from February 23 to 25 has indicated that isolated rain or thundershowers would continue to lash the extreme South Peninsula with the first few episodes expected to unfold from tomorrow (Friday) as a wave of unseasonal volatile weather migrates from Central India to the South.

Thunderstorms accompanied with lightning may roll out at isolated places over Jharkhand, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathawada and North Interior Karnataka on Thursday. On Friday, this unsettled weather pattern would strike isolated places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal, and on Saturday, over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal.

Also read: US: Power outages linger for millions as another icy storm looms

Thunderstorms rev off the coast

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts sees things calming down a bit over Central India today (Thursday) even as the seas to either side of the peninsula (the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal) are apparently mopping up more moisture to liven up the activity over the South Peninsula.

The ECMWF spotted a line of thunderstorms off the West Coast of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra; to Karwar and Mangaluru in Karnataka; and Kannur and Kozhikode in Kerala on Thursday morning. Less intense and spread out were those off the coast off the rest of Kerala with a major branch originating from the Lakshadweep Islands and feeding into the line-up off the West Coast.

Helpful atmospheric features

To the other side, the footprint of a mass of rain clouds has grown over the South-West Bay of Bengal some distance off the coast of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu even as another parcel of clouds lay in wait over the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Parts of Tamil Nadu, including Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Muthupet and those along the Ghats could witness hit-or-miss thunderstorms today (Thursday).

The IMD signalled the presence of a cyclonic circulation over Vidarbha and a trough (elongated area of lower pressure) linking it with North Interior Karnataka across Marathawada and South Madhya Maharashtra as the two major atmospheric features that are facilitating the spread of volatile weather to parts of South India.

South Peninsula has ‘excess’ rain

Meanwhile, to the North of the country, a prevailing feeble western disturbance is expected to cause isolated rainfall/snowfall with isolated thunderstorm, lightning/hail over Uttarakhand until Friday morning. Dense to very dense fog is warned of over parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and West Uttar Pradesh into the morning hours which may reduce in intensity and spatial coverage thereafter.

Also read: South to see thunderstorms from February 18

The South Peninsula has received excess to large excess rain during the period from January 1 to February 17 with the sole exception of Telangana (a large deficit of -85 per cent). East and North-East India as well as North-West India fared badly while Central India is only slightly better, not considering the large deficit (-90 per cent) in Odisha and lesser ones in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

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