Patna, May 21: Monsoon might be late but cyclone Roanu has brought the much needed pre-monsoon showers to Bihar and other places along the eastern coast.

"Cyclone Roanu is expected to make landfall in Bangladesh tonight," said Ashish Sen, the Patna meteorological centre director. "Moisture incursion because of the cyclone moving in the northwest Bay of Bengal is leading to the light to moderate showers in Gangetic Bengal, Jharkhand and east Bihar."

The cyclone is expected to cause showers in the eastern parts of Bihar and lead to overcast conditions over the next two days, followed by another spell of rain for three days because of a western disturbance approaching Nepal.

While cloudy conditions are expected across the state this coming week, Patna, Gaya and the remaining parts of south-western Bihar are likely to receive moderate showers on Monday and Tuesday.

Several districts in eastern Bihar, including Purnea, Saharsa, Kishanganj, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur, have already received moderate to heavy rainfall over the past two-three days because of moisture incursion from the cyclone. The rainy conditions came as a godsend.

"I came to Patna from Delhi with my wife on Friday and decided to go to Rajgir this morning," said Suyash Raj, who hails from Patna. "The drive was simply amazing in this weather."

Cyclone Roanu, the first tropical cyclone of the season in the Bay of Bengal, originated in the south Bay of Bengal on May 17 in the form of a depression. The condition led to heavy rainfall in places such as Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram on the country's south-eastern coast. The depression turned into a cyclone by May 19 and moved along the south-eastern and eastern coast of India, causing heavy rainfall in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha among others.

According to the private weather agency Skymet, the cyclone was expected to make landfall around 6pm near Chittagong coast in Bangladesh. For India, it has predicted Roanu to cause downpour in Tripura first. The agency has also predicted scattered rain in Bihar on Sunday, followed by fairly widespread rain on Monday and Tuesday.

While Roanu is expected to influence Bihar's weather, the western disturbance approaching Nepal could bring more rain. "The disturbance is expected to lead to moderate to heavy rainfall in north Bihar and light to moderate rain in the central and western parts of the state," said Sen.