Residents in Patna and elsewhere in Bihar heaved a sigh of relief on Monday as the intense heat took a backseat and overcast conditions brought down the day temperature.
The past four days in Patna had been sweltering with the maximum hovering around the 40°C mark, but a trough line passing through the state, weathermen said, sparked much-needed cloud formation and brought rainfall to several north and east Bihar districts. Sunday's maximum in Patna was 40.4°C and on Monday it dropped to 33.4°C.
"The trough line passing through Bihar at a height of 1.5km favoured cloud formation," Patna Met office scientist Anand Shankar told The Telegraph. "A cyclonic circulation at a height of 0.9km above the state was also prevailing which helped in bringing rainfall to several parts of the state. Other parts experienced cloudy conditions."
Trough line is an imaginary line that generally extends from west to east. Weather-related activities like rainfall, thunderstorms are very common in and around the region a trough line passes through. On Monday, the trough line was passing through eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal.
"The electricity rate has gone up so it hurts to use the air-conditioner throughout the day," said homemaker Ragini Sinha in Raja Bazaar. "For the past four days I had no other option but to keep the AC on as the kids are in the house for summer vacations. Fortunately, the weather was quite pleasant on Monday and we could give our AC rest."
The districts of Madhubani, Darbhanga, Saharsa, Supaul, Madhepura, Muzaffarpur, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Araria, Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar, Samastipur, Khagaria, Begusarai, Munger, Lakhisarai and parts of Bhagalpur received rainfall in varying degrees on Monday. "Other districts, including Patna, are likely to receive rainfall on Tuesday evening and even on Wednesday," said Shankar. "The weather is likely to remain pleasant for the next three days - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday."
The Patna Met office has already forecast that Bihar is likely to be hit by rain-bearing winds on time, by June 10.
