The vital Southwest Monsoon after getting delayed by about nine days, is making a slow and sluggish progress in Pune. Monsoon hit the city on 16th June and has brought little rain since then. And according to the latest weather update, chances of good rain in Pune look dismal for the next one week.
Weathermen at Skymet say rain could have picked up pace but for the cyclonic storm Nanauk stationed over the Arabian Sea a few days ago, the onset of Monsoon got delayed over Pune.
Currently, the Northern Limit of Monsoon is seen passing through Veraval, Sanghali, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam. This means, monsoon has reached coastal Maharashtra and south Madhya Maharashtra but is yet to cover remaining parts of Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha.
This shows a stark contrast to last year’s situation when Monsoon in India was making a fast progress and had covered Pune by 8th June and entire Maharashtra by 10th June. 2013 was a year of above normal rainfall by 106% as compared to 2014 where the monsoon average has been estimated to be around 94% by Skymet.
So far, Pune has had mere 14 mm of rain in the month of June, with the highest rainfall being 5 mm on the 5th of June. Rainfall has been continuous but light and scattered for last three days. In the last 24 hours, Pune received only traces of rain, while on 16th and 15th June it was 2 mm each.
“Weather models at Skymet are indicating that rain in Pune will continue for next couple of days but just like Mumbai, it is going to be sporadic. No good showers are expected anytime soon. Needless to say, this could be yet another example of the dreaded El Nino phenomenon.
Erratic weather in India since the start of this year, with numerous incidents of hailstorm in Maharashtra, and the news of a weak Monsoon ahead, has already led to a significant rise in food prices across the country. Health conscious Puneites, could burn a hole in their pockets this season as the prices of exotic veggies have risen by 60%, double the prices last month.
Photo by abhijit.
