Ahmedabad recorded 114mm of rainfall in 24hr ending 0830am today. Courtesy cyclone Tauktae, the downpour started in the afternoon and continued without break till around midnight. Heavy showers accompanied crazy winds speeding 60-70kmh, almost relentless till past midnight.
Cyclone Tauktae after making landfall near Diu headed northeast, though weakening to a cyclonic storm while reaching the outskirts of the state capital Gandhinagar and the twin city Ahmedabad around late afternoon on 18th May. Tauktae will go on record to be the slowest moving storm right from landfall onward which took nearly 4hr to complete. Cyclone measured the entire stretch of Saurashtra traversing across Una, Bagasara, Amreli, Botad, and Limbdi before reaching outers of Capital city Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. It weakened to a deep depression and later to depression while cutting across Viramgam and Himmatnagar before entering Rajasthan. Even as a weakened system, Tauktae left a trail of damage around Ahmedabad, inundating many areas and felling possibly hundreds of trees in the district disrupting connectivity.
Ahmedabad is not a sensitive weather pocket till the arrival of the monsoon. It is known for pre-monsoon blaze with frequent and prolonged heatwave conditions in April, May, till mid-June. Measuring 114mm in 24 hr is more than a decade old record and is close to an all-time 24 hours record of 138.3mm on 09th May 1982. This downpour was not because of any cyclonic storm. Monthly normal rainfall is just 7mm and even the month of June when the monsoon arrives halfway through has an average of 80mm only. In the last 10years, since 2011, the maximum monthly rainfall has been recorded at 6.7mm in May 2015. Also, 7 out of the last 10years, there was no rainfall recorded during the month.
Weather conditions have improved now and harmless medium clouds are providing pleasant cover over the city. The maximum temperature which plunged 16 degrees celsius below the normal yesterday is expected to reach around 33-34degree today and a sharp rise tomorrow onward. No significant weather is expected over and around the city for the next 10 days.
