Pre monsoon weather activity wait in the wings to lash many parts of the country anytime soon. This weather activity may be considered as untimely and unseasonal at this time of the year, particularly for the central and western parts of the country. The wet spell is going to be all inclusive of hazardous weather for many parts. Lightning, thunderstorm, gusty & strong winds, thundershowers with intermittent breaks in between will strike most parts of the country in a staggered manner between 14th and 22nd March 2023. Maharashtra and Telangana will be at risk of having severe weather activity, more so for the latter, between 16th and 18th March.
Earlier, February 2023 was observed as one of the driest and hottest month. Blame it on climate change, month of February has been failing more often in the last decade or even longer. It has remained persistently deficit since 2016, except in 2019 when it registered surplus rains. February 2023 witnessed highest shortfall of 68% and shared a similar record of 2021. Sparse rains triggering drier layers of atmosphere, raised mercury levels, much earlier than normal in February itself. First 1/3rd of March was no better, with most parts registering above normal temperatures. Coastal stations like Mumbai, Surat , Mangalore, Karwar, Goa and Ratnagiri exposed to heat wave conditions quite early in the season. There is a twist coming for the weather conditions.
Multiple weather systems support and interact with each other during this week setting off early intense pre monsoon activity for the central and adjoining southern parts of the country. All the four subdivisions of Maharashtra along with contiguous Telangana will be in for adverse weather between 15th and 19th March 2023. Thunderstorm activity could be more severe for Telangana and Vidarbha between 16th and 18th March.
The worrying aspect of this spell is thunderstorm accompanied with strong winds and hail storm in some pockets. Combination of these 2 phenomenon is considered detrimental for the standing crops or unsecured crops. Telangana has a large variability of hailstorm activity. Last year, the state experienced a rare incident of hailstorm in January itself. Also, capital city of Hyderabad was held to ransom for nearly 2 hours on account of hailstorm in April 2018. One such freak thing may happen during the likely spell this week.
The expected spell over Maharashtra and Telangana is attributed to a cyclonic circulation likely to come up over Konkan and North Madhya Maharashtra. This feature will gradually shift eastward across Marathwada, Vidarbha and Telangana. This will also interact with other similar feature over Madhya Pradesh and the trough over interior Peninsular India. Weather activity will get shuttered after 19th March. However, the remnant effect may continue for the subsequent 2-3 days.
