Rainy evenings give city early monsoon vibes

Nagpur: For the second consecutive day, unseasonal rains and gusty winds in the evening brought down the maximum temperature and gave Nagpurians a feel of early arrival of monsoon. Incidentally, on Saturday, the IMD forecasted the likely early onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala.Citizens can look forward to more pleasant weather for the next four days as the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) extended the yellow alert till May 14 across the entire Vidarbha. Mild and scattered rains lashed many parts of the city, including West High Court Road, North Ambazari Road, Katol Road, Dharampeth, Ramdaspeth, and Wardha Road.The gusty winds blew off the green nets, set up to protect citizens from scorching heat, this time at Akashwani Square. In the evening, civic workers were seen restoring the nets on the busy road. With the rain catching them unawares, people took shelter beneath metro stations, outside malls, and roadside eateries.Meanwhile, Bramhapuri recorded the highest maximum temperature of the day in Vidarbha at 41.1 degrees Celsius. Buldhana recorded the lowest maximum temperature at 36.6 degrees Celsius.Praveen Kumar, forecasting in-charge at RMC, said the upper air weather system and trough over the region were causing thunderstorms. "Convective rains are getting support from the upper air system. A yellow alert has been issued for Vidarbha," he said. A trough in the westerlies runs from East Uttar Pradesh to southeast Telangana across East Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha, the IMD said.On the possibility of the early onset of the monsoon, Kumar said last year the season arrived two days in advance but didn't progress to cover the entire Vidarbha for at least eight days. "The normal date of the monsoon over Vidarbha is June 15. The IMD has forecasted an above-normal monsoon this year," he said.