Thunder, lightning to mark festival-end

“Rainfall over Pune city will increase by September 8 and there can be heavy rainfall along the ghats of Pune district around the same time,” said Anupam Kashyapi, head, weather forecasting division of IMD, Pune.

On most days last week, Pune’s maximum temperature remained 4 to 5 degrees Celsius above normal mainly due to clear sky conditions.

As a result, the city experienced short but intense rainfall spells in the evening hours. This even led to traffic snarls and inundation of roads at several places in the city last week.

Hot and humid conditions prevailed Sunday when Shivajinagar and Lohegaon recorded 34.4 and 34 degrees Celsius respectively, five degrees Celsius above normal.

According to Met department officials, when day temperatures are high there is more solar heating.

This, in turn, triggers convective activities locally. Lightning and thunderstorms accompanied by intense rainfall for short time duration are usually experienced in late afternoon or evening hours.

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A ‘yellow’ alert has been issued for Wednesday for Dhule, Nandurbar, Nashik, Solapur, Hingoli, Bhandara, Amravati, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Nagpur and Gondia. A similar alert exists for Osmanabad, Latur and Parbhani from September 6 to 8.

All 36 districts this year have recorded normal rainfall so far taking Maharashtra’s seasonal rainfall to 991 mm, which was 17 per cent surplus.