Since the first week of April, pre-Monsoon activities are being witnessed over many parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. In the past 24 hours, places like Darjeeling, Gangtok, Digha, Jamshedpur and Ranchi have witnessed rain and thundershower activities. These showers were also accompanied with strong winds and lightning strikes.
As per the statistics, for the first seven days of April, Gangetic West Bengal is large excess by 340%, while Jharkhand is excess by 92% and Bihar is excess by 400%. It rained heavily on April 1 and 7 in Bihar. However, Bihar has been deficit or largely deficit till March 31. The recent rains have helped in recovering the loss.
While for the pre-Monsoon season dated till April 7, Gangetic West Bengal is excess to large excess, Jharkhand is normal to excess and Bihar is deficit to large deficit. Despite of being the contiguous states, large variability is seen solely on the basis of quantum of rains.
At present, an anti-Cyclone is over Bay of Bengal with two Cyclonic Circulations in the vicinity. One is over Gangetic West Bengal and Jharkhand and another over Meghalaya and adjoining areas. These systems are responsible for giving rain and thundershower activities over the eastern states of the country. As per the experts, these light to moderate activities will be on for another two days. Post this, there is a chance that rain intensity might go up. Currently, Kolkata, Jamshedpur and Bokaro would witness rain and thundershower activities.
Also, during the pre-Monsoon season (March-May), the normal rainfall is generally low for the plains of North and East India. However, the northeastern states of the country and the hills in the North have greater normal in comparison to the plains.
The plains are more prone to thunderstorm and dust storm activities. Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal face violent thunderstorms, lightning strikes during this time, which is famously tagged as Kal Baisakhi or Nor'westers. We would advise that if thundery activity is heard, take shelter indoors as lightning is close enough to strike.
During this time, small systems in the form of circulations and troughs, act as a catalyst and results in rain and thundershower activities over East India.
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