Sudden rain brings relief in fortnight of heat & humidity
Bhubaneswar: A sudden bout of rain on Monday broke a 15-day dry spell in the capital city and provided some relief from the scorching heat of the past few days.
“I think the rain gods listened to our prayer as the heat was getting unbearable. The city had seen some rain about 15 days ago. The heat and the humidity had made life miserable,” said Monalisa Pani, a college student.
July for the most part seemed to be an extension of the peak summer months. With no sign of rain and the prevailing hot and humid weather, people stuck at home were getting increasingly irritated with the discomfort. Although the southwest monsoon had reached the state on time and covered the districts earlier than usual, it lost some of its force along the way, leading to deficit rainfall in around 11 districts. Besides, the high humidity levels made life difficult.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said the monsoon would remain weak for the next couple of days and would revive after that. However, thunderstorm and rainfall activities are likely in several districts of the state in the next couple of days.
“As we predicted earlier, the monsoon will be very weak between July 24 and 27 over Odisha. The same is being observed now,” said H R Biswas, director of IMD’s Bhubaneswar centre.
Light to moderate rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at many places over the districts of north interior Odisha and a few places over the rest of the state, the latest bulletin of the IMD said. Thunderstorm with lightning is very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Balasore, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Nayagarh and Khurda in the next 24 hours.
“It has been long since the city last got a good drenching. The sweltering heat is unbearable and it is forcing us to keep the AC on throughout the day. This year, summer was more pleasant than the rainy season,” said Satrupa Panda, a homemaker and a resident of Bhubaneswar.
The capital recorded a relative humidity of 95% while the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar recorded maximum temperature of 37.2°C on Monday.
IMD sources said Odisha had recorded 458 mm rainfall since the onset of monsoon on June 1, as against a normal of 511 mm. There has been no rainfall in the state in the past 24 hours, except in a few places. The highest rainfall of the past 24 hours was recorded in Rayagada (43mm).