Untimely rains which hit many parts of the State in the past 24 hours may affect the overall yield of wheat and other Rabi crops in Uttarakhand if it continues for another day or more. The weather department has forecast thunder showers at isolated places on Friday and weather is expected to improve by Saturday noon, said Uttarakhand Meteorological Centre director Anand Sharma on Thursday. Sharma attributed this to western disturbances.
He said that the situation is not alarming right now as agriculture areas in plains have not received much rainfall so far. But if rains along with high wind speed persist for another few days this month, it may affect the standing crops including wheat.
Sharma said, “We pass on necessary precautionary instructions to farmers from time to time. With the possibility of rainfall at isolated places in April, we had issued precautionary instructions to the farmers on three dates- April 4, 11 and 16, appealing them to keep their harvested wheat at safe place. It was found that the rains and hailstorm affect the standing crops so the farmers have been advised not to let water stagnate on their fields," he added. On Thursday Dehradun witnessed cloudy sky with drizzling till noon which was followed by sunshine. light rainfall at isolated places in plains and rain with snowfall in higher reaches of State brought the temperature down by six degrees from normal in Dehradun.
Areas in higher altitudes like Tapovan, Malari, Joshimath, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Kailash Mansarovar route and Auli might have been received light to moderate rain with snowfall. The maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded at 26.3°C and 15.4 °C respectively in Dehradun on Thursday. The weather forecast for Dehradunon Friday is generally cloudy sky and rain/ thunder showers at isolated places. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 27°C and 15°C respectively on Friday. The forecast for Uttarakhand on Friday is light to moderate rain/ thunder showers at many places and hail/squall has been forecast at isolated places.