Jamshedpur: The weatherman on Friday issued a rain and thunder squall alert for the state in the next 48 hours.
Officials at both Ranchi and Patna IMD offices issued a special bulletin, attributing the predictions to two atmospheric systems.
"A trough extending up to 1.5km above mean sea level runs from east Bihar to southern Odisha across northeast Jharkhand and Gangetic Bengal. This coupled with a cyclonic circulation over east Jharkhand and neighbouring Bengal and Bihar extending up to 0.9km above mean sea level will result in adverse weather condition," Upendra Srivastava, a senior official at the Ranchi Met Centre, said.
He added that the twin weather systems would increase moisture incursion into the atmosphere in the next two days and this would help in rain and thunder squall activity.
The twin weather systems brought light rain and thunder at a few places in Dumka, Deoghar, Jamtara and Godda on Friday afternoon. "Convective clouds formed at several places in northeastern parts of the state and resulted in light showers accompanied with thunder," a duty officer at the Ranchi Met Centre said.
The special bulletin issued by the Met department indicated scattered rains with thunderstorm (wind speed reaching 45-50kmph) and hail in central, southern and northeastern Jh-arkhand covering places such as Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Hazaribagh, Bokaro, Sahebganj, Godda, Pakur, Dumka, Deog-har, Jamtara and Dhanbad.
On April 1, the thunderstorm and squall activity is expected to cover more areas across central, south, northeast and northwest Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, the strong westerly winds, prevailing in the hi-gher levels of the atmosphere, resulted in a rise in day readings in most places on Friday.
The day temperature in Jamshedpur for the first time this summer touched the oppressive 40°C mark. At 2.30pm, the local IMD observatory in Jamshedpur, recorded 40.5°C.
The maximum reading in the steel city was three notches above the average normal. On Thursday, Jamsehdpur had recorded the day's reading of 39.2°C. Palamau headquarters Daltonganj and its adjoining areas topped the chart with around 42°C, five notches above normal, compared with Thursday's 40.8°C.
