Mild to heavy rain for the last 72 hours and a sudden downpours on Monday afternoon brought city at halt with traffic creeping for more than three hours in rain hit areas. Some roads turning into small lakes saw traffic completely slowed down over them. However, a Met Department official said that the rain was neither unusual nor excessive, and it only filled the gap between rainfall expected this month and actual rainfall received.
An official at the Indian Meteorological Department, Ranchi office , G Hedau said on Monday that the city had received 18.4 MM rainfall on 24 hours of September 24 (between 8:30 AM previous day to 8:30 AM that day), 5.01 MM on September 25 and 1.4 MM on September 26 (Monday). However, sudden downpour at Monday afternoon saw the city receiving additional 1.4 MM of rainfall, which was to be calculated as rainfall on Tuesday (September 27).
“Mild and scattered rainfall was nothing beyond expectation, as we saw it taking place on previous days. However, the momentum was definitely there to convert this mild rain into heavier one at a couple of places, and it took place,” said Hedau. He said that mild to moderate rainfall was very much expected for another 24 hours in the city. “Similar kind of sudden downpours may take place in many parts of the State on Tuesday, including Ranchi,” said Hedau.
Weather Scientist at IMD Ranchi, Upendra Srivastava said on Monday that the rain that caused water-logging at a number of roads and many low areas of the city only filled the gap of expected rainfall and actual rainfall for this month and this season as a whole in Jharkhand.
“Now we are more close to call Jharkhand a normal monsoon receiver State for this year, which is much better than previous year records. We are only around 2 per cent less of normal monsoon, which can’t be called less keeping the amount of rain expected to receive in days to some during this season,” he added.
From August 2016, different parts of the State has been receiving moderate to heavy rainfall continuously. On Monday, the State capital recorded maximum 31 and minimum 23.6 degree Celsius of temperature with 1.4MM rainfall. Srivastava added that even receiving 5.01 MM rainfall on Sunday, Ranchi was left behind by Pakur in terms of rainfall received in last 24 hours.