A boy enjoys the rain while taking a walk with a relative in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Sporadic rainfall for almost 10 hours on Sunday gave city residents a hope of a monsoon revival. However, the pleasant weather is not here to stay.

India Meteorological Department (IMD), Patna, said many parts of Bihar would get rainfall over the next two to three days but weathermen cautioned that the dry spell is likely to return in the first week of August.

The well-marked low pressure area over Bihar and Jharkhand that led to rainfall on Saturday weakened into a low pressure area and shifted to east Uttar Pradesh and adjoining areas of northeast Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.

Weathermen claimed such a movement of the low-pressure area would reduce the rainfall’s intensity in the region over the next two to three days. Thereafter, the city is expected to witness a dry spell for another three to four days.

“The overall weather conditions is not very conducive to good rainfall in most parts of the state, including Patna. The trough line, which is passing through Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Bengal at present, is expected to start shifting southward from tomorrow. Once it completes its oscillating movement towards south of its current position, it would take at least four days to return to its present position. The upper air circulation over the state is also not very strong at present. Thus, the current spell of light to moderate rain is likely to persist only for another two to three days,” said Ashish Sen, director, IMD, Patna.

Girls enjoy a ride in the rain on Frazer Road on Sunday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The cloud imagery from Kalpana-1 satellite on Sunday afternoon showed convective clouds over several parts of Bihar. The evening monsoon bulletin of IMD stated that rain or thundershowers were expected at many parts of Bihar till July 31 and decrease thereafter.

Residents of Patna were upbeat with even the measly rainfall over the weekend.

“There has been hardly any rain this year because of which the weather had been extremely hot and humid over the past couple of weeks. Thus, rainfall was extremely necessary to break the discomfort from such sultry conditions. It was only because of overcast skies and comfortable weather that I took my family to Eco Park in the morning,” said Ajay Kumar, a resident of Jagdeo Path.

Records with the IMD state that Bihar received 358mm monsoon rainfall between June 1 and July 28, against the normal of 498mm, leaving a deficiency of 26 per cent. Patna on the other hand, received 153mm rainfall against 377mm of normal rainfall, leaving a deficiency of 57 per cent. The local Met department recorded 0.8mm rainfall between 8.30am on Saturday and 8.30am on Sunday. The rainfall between 8.30am and 5.30pm on Sunday was measured at 1mm.

Hangout places in and around the city witnessed good footfall owing to the pleasant weather.

“Around 500 people came to the water park today (Sunday), which is comparatively better than the number of people, who had come on the weekdays. Though heavy rainfall is not good for water parks, people do enjoy light showers while spending time here,” said Sanjay Choudhary, the proprietor of Funtasia Island.

The delight of residents for the rains was obvious as the city remained high and dry over the past week. Records available with the IMD, Patna, received 0.7mm rainfall between July 18 and 24 against the normal rainfall of 64.2mm during the same period, making a deficiency of 99 per cent.

The light showers, however, did not affect flight operation from the city airport, as all flights operated on time on Saturday and Sunday.

Several residents seemed to be irked with the erratic rainfall. “I don’t understand the rain pattern. It rains for a few minutes and then the sky clears. Soon the weather will turn hot. My two sons is having viral fever because of the erratic weather,” said Tulika Sinha, a resident of SK Nagar.