Amidst the sweltering heat wave in parts of Himachal Pradesh, the Meteorological Department has come out with a soothing prediction of a normal monsoon for the State this year.
In the first forecast for the season on long Period Average, the Indian Meteorological Department has said that the hill State will have a normal south-west monsoon and the State is expected to receive 96 percent rainfall on the long period average.
Dr Manmohan Singh, Director, Meteorology Department, Shimla said that the forecast released by the IMD on Tuesday was valid for Himachal Pradesh and other North Western Himalayan states. He said,” IMD issues three updates on the long range forecast for the season and this is the first update issued on Monsoon.”
As per the estimates, the Monsoon is likely to be normal, and there would be 96 percent long Period Average (lPA) rain with an error of plus and minus five per cent. Singh said that forecast assessment suggests 38 percent probability for near normal monsoon rainfall.
But the hill state is not expected to get relief from the scorching heat as the weather men have predicted the mercury to rise in the coming days. The soaring mercury has taken the temperature 2 to 3 degrees above normal as Una in Himachal Pradesh recorded degree Celsius and remained 3 degrees above normal. The mercury in state capital Shimla recorded 27.4 degrees maximum on Tuesday.
The temperatures in a number of districts have gone past 30 degrees in past few days. Sundernagar in Mandi recorded 35.8 degrees on Tuesday while the temperature in Bhunter 34.8 degrees, Dharmshala 31.4 degrees, Nahan in Sirmaour 32.9 degrees, Solan 33.5 degrees went close to 35.