At a time when over 200 persons have already died due to lightning strikes, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday warned of more thunderstorms with lightning along with moderate to heavy rain over east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, south Bihar, Chhattisgarh, east Madhya Pradesh, interior Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal during the next 48 hours.
There’s no relief for Gujarat too battered with heavy rain. The IMD predicted heavy rainfall in Gujarat in the next 48 hours due to well-marked low pressure area over Saurashtra and neighbourhood. Porbandar and Dwarka received 12 inches and 10 inches rainfall in the last 24 hours.
The weatherman predicted moderate rains, moderate to intense thunderstorm and more lightning strikes over east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, south Bihar, Chhattisgarh, east Madhya Pradesh, interior Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal during the next 48 hours. At least 200-250 people have died since March due to lightning in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with many of the victims being farmers who were in their fields for plantations during monsoon rains.
The IMD also predicted heavy rains over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim during July 9th to 12.
The IMD said lightning and thunder are caused by large-scale instability in the atmosphere, fuelled by temperature rises and excessive moisture. Lightning strikes during the annual monsoon that runs from June to September are fairly common in India.
As per reports, at least 25 people were fatally struck on Saturday (July 4) in Bihar. On Friday (July 3), 19 people died in the state due to lightning. There were 26 deaths on Thursday (July 2) while 125 people died on July 1 in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
As per the National Crime Records Bureau data, every year at least 2000 to 3000 deaths in India occur due to lightning strikes and torrential rains in India. Odisha tops with 9 lakh lightning strikes which is15% of total strikes. Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh together account for more than 50%lightning strikes of India. The number of lightning days across India has shown a significant increase, every month progressively.
July witnessed the highest lightning days, especially in the later half due to turbulent onset of monsoon.
There has been constant lightning almost every day in one or the other parts of country. Odisha and Andhra Pradesh have so far been the most lightning active states. Eight states of North East comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim –the 2.4% of geographical area of India with 3.86% of national population falls in the most hot lightning rod zone.
India has received 244.9 mm rainfall as against the normal of 216.7 mm, an increase of 12 percent so far. As many as 30 states and union territories have received either normal or excess rainfall between June 1 and July 6.
After witnessing a spell of heavy rainfall over the past three days, Mumbai and neighbouring Thane received moderate rains on Monday. The Santacruz weather bureau (in suburbs) recorded 5.2 mm rainfall, while the Colaba weather station, representative of the island city, reported 1.2 mm rainfall between 8:30 amand 5:30 pm on Monday.