Patna: A depression over the Bay of Bengal, which made landfall on Thursday, will affect rainfall in north Bihar districts in the next two to three days. The movement of the same depression from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, however, is likely to bring some rainfall in southern parts of Bihar including Patna during this period.
Patna Met office scientist Anand Shankar said: "A depression had developed over Bay of Bengal which made landfall on Thursday afternoon. This system is expected to move westward at a rapid pace due to which parts of south Bihar are expected to receive rainfall."
The formation of this system has led to southward shift of the monsoon trough line due to which north Bihar districts are expected to receive less rainfall than the southern districts. A monsoon trough line is an imaginary line which extends from west to east. Monsoon related activities take place around this line and in areas falling south of it.
Shankar explained that once the system which had developed on the Bay of Bengal dissipates, the trough line was expected to move northwards and pass through Bihar leading to good rainfall across the state.
"The north Bihar districts are expected to receive good rainfall Sunday onwards," he said.
The monsoon has been kind to Bihar this year. Even after arriving well behind the expected date, it has brought normal rainfall to the state this time. The state received 712.6 mm of rainfall from June 1 to September 6, which was 16 per cent below the normal. The normal rainfall for the period for Bihar is 850.1 mm.
In meteorological parlance, the monsoon is considered to be normal if the departure from the normal rainfall is up to 19 per cent.
Given the fact that the Met office has predicted a normal rainfall during the month of September, the state, which was staring at a possible drought till July end, is set to witness normal rainfall.
Sources in the agriculture department said that the rain has also helped the farmers and paddy sowing had taken place in around 95 per cent of the 34 lakh hectares target sowing area.
