RAIN, RAIN: The scene in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. PHOTO: ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY

NEW DELHI: The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF) said on Tuesday that Delhi and its neighbourhood are likely to have rain this coming weekend -- September 2 and 3 -- following intensification of a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal into a depression.

Speaking to The Hindu , the weatherman said the depression is likely to cross the Orissa coast in the next 24 to 48 hours. Consequently Orissa could start getting a fresh spell of rain in the next 24 to 48 hours. The rain could then move to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, west Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.

Meanwhile, data collected by the India Meteorology Department (IMD) has shown that though the cumulative rainfall so far has been normal for the country as a whole, the distribution was quite uneven. The cumulative rainfall stood at about 99 per cent of the long period average.

For instance, while west Rajasthan, normally a dry region, received rainfall 43 per cent above normal, the Assam-Meghalaya region and Arunachal Pradesh, traditionally among the wettest regions in the country, received rainfall 42 per cent and 41 per cent below normal this year.

In west Rajasthan, Barmer received rainfall 226 per cent above normal, and Jaisalmer 137 per cent above normal. The two districts form part of the Thar desert.

Wide regional disparity

Meteorologists at the NCMRWF said the wide regional disparity was mainly because low-pressure areas had formed over the Bay of Bengal one after the other since the last week of July. These atmospheric systems have all been moving in a west-north-westerly direction.

(Normally, the monsoon is characterised by a cycle of active and weak phases. While the active phase brings rainfall to Central, West and North India, the weak phase results in rains in the South peninsular region and the Northeast.)

As a result, rainfall has been bountiful over Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and south Rajasthan and deficient over the Northeast as well as the South peninsula. The South peninsula region has so far received rain nine per cent below normal.

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