The Met department did not declare the onset of southwest monsoon in the state on Thursday despite northeastern parts of Bihar receiving widespread rainfall on Wednesday.
Patna meteorological centre director Ashish Sen claimed that monsoon onset in the state is now likely to be declared either on Friday or Saturday.
Patna and the remaining parts of central and south Bihar would, however, have to wait for around a week as the weathermen expect monsoon onset in these areas around June 17-18.
"More than 70 per cent of the meteorological stations in the extreme northeastern parts of the state, including Purnea and Katihar, recorded rainfall on Wednesday. Also, 50 per cent of the stations in the remaining places in north Bihar received scattered rainfall in the past 24 hours. However, our headquarters in New Delhi has stated that the onset of monsoon in the state would be officially declared only when the rainfall at such places would continue for at least 48 hours. Accordingly, the monsoon onset in Bihar is now expected to be declared either on Friday or Saturday," said Sen.
The southwest monsoon first hit the Kerala coast on January 5 and a majority of northeastern states the next day. However, the progress of monsoon towards the eastern parts of the country, including Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand, has almost been stagnant over the past five days.
"Though the northern limit of monsoon has not progressed further in eastern India, its current has reached northeastern parts of Bihar, which led to widespread rainfall in districts, including Purnea and Katihar among others. Conditions are favourable for rainfall to gain momentum in the north-eastern and northern parts of the state over the next 48 hours, which would pave way for the monsoon onset," said Sen.
Weathermen have also ruled out any obstruction in the advancement of monsoon because of cyclone Ashobaa in the Arabian Sea. "It was initially being apprehended that if cyclone Ashobaa hits the Gujarat coast it would lead to obstruction in the advancement of eastern wing southwest monsoon (which hits Kerala). However, it has now moved towards Iran, thus, it is unlikely to lead to any impact on the monsoon advancement in India," said Sen.
Initially, the weathermen had predicted that monsoon would hit the state through the northeastern parts by Thursday. The normal date for the onset of monsoon in Bihar through the northeastern districts of Purnea and Katihar among others is June 10 and it hits central parts of the state, including Patna, around June 13. Last year, the monsoon entered through Purnea on June 18 and covered the entire state on the same day.
Heatwave departure
Though the official declaration of monsoon onset is still a few days away, residents in most areas of the state got respite from the heatwave conditions on Thursday owing to moist easterly winds.
Weathermen claimed that heatwave conditions lifted from most districts in central Bihar, including Patna, on Thursday and south Bihar would also get respite from the scorching heat conditions by Friday.
"The maximum temperature dropped below 40 degrees Celsius in most areas of central Bihar on Friday and similar temperature conditions are expected in the southern parts of the state on Friday. Accordingly, we expected that heatwave conditions would be lifted across the entire state by Friday," said Sen.
The maximum temperature in Patna plummeted from 42.2 degrees Celsius recorded on Wednesday to 38.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday. Though Gaya remained the hottest in the state, the maximum temperature dropped from 44.7 degrees Celsius recorded on Wednesday to 41.1 degrees Celsius on Thursday. The Met office forecast that the maximum temperature in Patna would be in the range of 36-38 degrees Celsius over the next five days and 38-39 degrees in Gaya during the same time.
