The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a “yellow alert” for Nagpur city and Vidarbha region for the next four days beginning Monday. The weather department has predicted thunderstorms accompanied by lightning in some isolated places.
According to the IMD, thunderstorms with lightning are likely to occur at isolated places on Monday and Tuesday all over Vidarbha. The same alert with heavy rainfall for some areas has been advanced for Wednesday and Thursday too.
However, the alert issued by the department for the last five days proved untrue as rain bearing clouds opened up on the city only last night even as the backlog of the month was reduced to 20 percent from the earlier 35 percent. The skies remained overcast during the day with very little rainfall till early evening.
As per the department, favourable conditions for rain are developing in Vidarbha as well as in neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. A low pressure has formed with cyclonic circulation near Rajasthan. Similarly, a favourable condition has also formed on western side that could result in rains here. Meanwhile, the city registered 215.5 mm of rainfall from June 1 to July 9.
At present, Bhandara and Gondia, con-sidered to be the rice bowls of Vidarbha, received 15 and 12 per cent more rains respectively that proved beneficial to paddy crops requiring high amount of water