Close on the heels of registering its season-best rainfall of 120 mm on Saturday and Sunday, Bhopal continued to enjoy the monsoon's bounty on Monday. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the city received 166.5 mm rainfall yesterday. Meanwhile, other parts of West Madhya Pradesh like Khandwa and Khargone received 163 mm and 117.4 mm respectively.
Comparatively, East Madhya Pradesh got less rain, with Mandla recording 61 mm and Narsinghpur 37 mm on Monday. To the south, Vidarbha in Maharashtra also got some good spells of rainfall on Monday. Chandrapur received 132.9 mm, while both Gadchiroli and Brahmpuri registered over 100 mm rain.
As on July 29, West Madhya Pradesh has received 10% excess rainfall, while East MP faced a 19% deficit. Cities like Bhopal (17%), Indore (31%), Ujjain (21%) and Gwalior (6%) in western MP have got surplus rain, while cities like Jabalpur (-2%) and Sagar (-19%) to the east have got lower-than-normal volumes. Madhya Pradesh faces an overall monsoonal deficit of 4% to date.
There are two cyclonic circulations in action over the region. The first is in South Rajasthan, and the second over Eastern Madhya Pradesh. The Weather Channel's Met team has noted that the second circulation is encountering westerly winds from the Arabian Sea, which is likely to result in heavy spells of rain over the Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border in Vidarbha on Tuesday.
Weather.com predicts that the circulation will move westward slowly, bringing lingering rain across Central to Western India. Locally heavy rain of up to 80 mm is expected until Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile the IMD has issued a red 'take action' warning for West Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, predicting up to 'very heavy' rains (204 mm+). Extremely heavy rainfall (over 204 mm) are likely in isolated parts of Chhattisgarh, it warns. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are likely to experience heavy rainfall until August 3 (Saturday), the IMD said, while in Vidarbha, the rains should ease after Thursday.
Despite a warning being in place for Chhattisgarh on Monday, the state did not record exceptional rainfall. The capital Raipur got 71.2 mm rain, while Jagdalpur got 32 mm.
