A vehicle moves down a waterlogged street at Kankerbagh in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The Met office has claimed that Tuesday’s downpour was confined to Patna only because of localised thunderstorms even as most of the districts remained dry.

The rainfall started at 9 in the morning and continued till 12.30pm. Weathermen said the monsoon is weak over the state at present and the showers over the city because of local weather components that are likely to subside by Wednesday morning.

This Independence Day can witness cloudy skies and light rainfall at one or two places. “The downpour in the state capital on Tuesday morning was mainly because of a localised thunderstorm over Patna and its neighbouring southwest districts — Bhojpur, Jehanabad, Buxar, Rohtas, Gaya, Nawada and Aurangabad. It had also rained on Sunday night owing to formation of isolated thunderstorm. While the showers on Sunday night were confined to a radius of 20km around Patna, the rain on Tuesday were spread across the entire district,” said Ashish Sen, director (radar), India Meteorological Department (IMD), Patna.

On Sunday night, the rainfall figure in the capital was 88mm, while 33.4mm was recorded between 8.30am and 5.30pm on Tuesday.

Sen added: “The thunderstorm that caused rainfall this (Tuesday) morning is expected to subside by tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. We have forecast partly cloudy skies with one or two spells of light rains for tomorrow. Thereafter, a lull in monsoon would be observed in the state over the next four to five days. This is because of shifting of the monsoon trough line towards foothill of the Himalayas, which would take four to five days to return to its normal position. Such a break in the monsoon after the first week of August till the month-end is a normal phenomenon, which is observed every year and affects the entire country.”

The IMD has forecast normal rainfall for this month, subject to duration of the break in monsoon, for the state. “Bihar is expected to receive normal rainfall in August. There can be deficiency if the monsoon break stretches more than the expected time. The lull period can be less than expected if any low pressure develops over the Bay of Bengal,” said IMD Patna director D.C. Gupta.

Abdus Sattar, an assistant professor of meteorology with Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa, Samastipur, echoed Sen’s claims. “Good rainfall is not expected across the state at least for the next seven days. The rainfall during this period would be light and isolated. The overall rainfall in August in the state is likely to be less than normal,” said Sattar.

He expressed concern over the erratic distribution of rainfall across the state. “The rainfall in south Bihar has been very poor as compared to the northern part. This kind of highly uneven distribution has affected the growth of kharif crops in the region,” said Sattar. The rain deficiency in the capital stood at 2 per cent on Tuesday and for the state at 24 per cent.