Brief spell of rain brings respite from heat in Pune

Since Monday parts of Maharashtra, including Pune, have seen cloudy skies. This is mostly because of the incursion of moisture as well as local disturbances. IMD, in its daily forecast, said the ghat regions of Pune and Nashik as well as Dhule, Jalgaon, Sangli, Satara and Ahilyanagar among other districts would experience rain accompanied by thunder, lighting and hailstorm in the next 24-48 hours. IMD has issued an orange alert for these districts, urging people to be careful. An orange alert is issued when extremely bad weather is expected and can disrupt rail, transport and normal life.

Tuesday’s brief spell of rain has come as a relief for Pune, which has been sizzling under extremely high temperatures for the last month or so. January was the hottest in the last 10 years. Many places in Pune like Koregaon Park, Lohegaon, Magarpatta, Dudalgaon, Shirur and Dhamdhere have repeatedly recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. Even Shivajinahar’s automatic weather station reported 39.3 degrees Celsius, which was the highest for the station this season.

IMD on Monday warned of more than normal days of heatwaves in summer. Also the maximum temperatures would be higher than normal in most parts of the country.