Cyclone hits homecoming Rain spoils festive pomp and show

Strong winds broke branches of a tree on Fraser Road on Monday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Rain played spoilsport in Puja and Dussehra revelry, curtailing fun of young and old.

On Navami (Sunday) and Dashami (Monday), Patna residents experienced a bit of what people in coastal Odisha and Andhra Pradesh must have felt when very severe cyclone Phailin hit the eastern coastal line on Saturday night.

The rain diminished in the city on Tuesday as the intensity of Phailin weakened. But overcast skies are expected to persist during the next 36 hours, causing few spells of light rainfall.

Patna is nearly 950km from Gopalpur in Ganjam district of Odisha, where Phailin made the landfall on Saturday night. But incessant rain with winds blowing at speed of up to 80kmph on Sunday and Monday disrupted the regular activities and pandal-hopping plans of revellers.

The effect of Phailin was felt in Patna from Sunday morning with overcast skies and intermittent drizzles throughout the day. Private weather agencies like Skymet and AccuWeather forecast heavy rainfall with thundershowers in Patna in the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. It proved to be accurate.

Around 10pm on Sunday night, the winds and the rain became stronger and the precipitation continued almost uninterrupted for the next 24 hours, spoiling the Puja plans of the residents.

“It rained continuously, and there was no power at our home. I was extremely bored and could not go out to see pandals,” said Jaya Upadhyay, a resident of Kurgi.

The Met department recorded 78mm rain on Sunday and 85.4mm on Monday.

“Phailin hit Patna on Sunday night as a well-mark low pressure area and led to moderate and heavy rainfall over the next 36 hours. The wind speed ranged between 50 and 80kmph during the rainfall,” said R.K. Giri, scientist, India Meteorological Department, Patna.

Weather experts claimed that a cyclone is a weather phenomenon originating from the sea and it is rare for a place like Patna, far away from the coastal line, to get widespread rainfall as its effect.

“Phailin took a northeast turn after making landfall. It entered Bihar after passing through Jharkhand,” said Giri.

The prolonged rainfall also led to surge in the water level in the Ganga along Patna. The water, however, did not reach the danger level.

The Met department has forecast partly cloudy skies over the city during the next 36 hours.

“Though most of the moisture content has shifted, a layer of water vapour persists in the upper levels of the troposphere over entire Bihar. This would sustain the cloud cover over most parts of the state during the next 36 hours. Few spells of light rainfall can be witnessed in Patna,” said Giri.

There was a light drizzle in Patna on Tuesday evening.