Defiant rain-driver depression eyes West Coast

Tuesday’s hyperactive depression over Telangana was located on Wednesday afternoon over North Interior Karnataka and adjoining Maharashtra and Telangana, 80 km North-West of Gulbarga (North Interior Karnataka) and about 160 km east of Solapur (Madhya Maharashtra).

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) expects the system to continue to track typically West-North-West and weaken a round into a well-marked low-pressure area. But it may not make much impression on its capacity to continue to generate heavy rainfall.

More moisture from Arabian Sea

This is because it would be able to mop up incremental moisture from south-westerly winds blowing into it from the Arabian Sea. In fact, the system is forecast to step out in the Arabian Sea off the Maharashtra coast by Friday where it may re-intensify as a low and even a depression.

Given this track of movement, the IMD has predicted heavy to very rainfall and even extremely heavy rainfall over Konkan and Goa on Thursday, while it would be heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places over Coastal Karnataka and Madhya Maharashtra.

This would come about after it would have dropped heavy rain on Wednesday over Madhya Maharashtra, Konkan, Goa and Coastal and North Interior Karnataka and heavy to very heavy falls at isolated places over South Interior Karnataka and Marathwada.

Delay in N-E monsoon

Fishermen are advised not to venture into the Gulf of Mannar, the Comorin and along and off Karnataka-Kerala coasts and North Andaman Sea on Thursday; and along and off the Maharashtra-South Gujarat coast from Thursday to Sunday.

Meanwhile, the withdrawal of the erstwhile South-West monsoon remains stalled since there is no respite from the march-in of rain-generating systems from the opposite side from the Bay of Bengal. This may delay the arrival of the North-East monsoon over Peninsular India.