No cloudburst,difficult to predict such rain: IMD

Terming it as an intense convective activity,the India Meteorology Department (IMD) discarded the speculations about Monday’s rainfall being a cloudburst. The IMD officials also said that since it was an intense convective activity,it could not predict the amount of rainfall. “ Various factors attributed to Monday’s rainfall. There was a low pressure area over Bay of Bengal and in addition to that the day temperatures were above normal due to local heating that resulted in heavy rainfall,” said Medha Khole,director of (weather forecasting) IMD,Pune.

Khole said the monsoon has not yet withdrawn fully from the state though it has withdrawn from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. “It is in a process of withdrawal and such heavy rainfall can be seen during this process,” she said.

There was also huge variation in the amount of rainfall that occurred in various parts of the city. While the Pashan recorded 172.6 mm rain,Lohegaon registered only 24.4 mm rains. In Shivajinagar,140 mm rainfall was recorded in just two hours from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm.