Patna: After downpour throughout Sunday night, weather office in Patna has forecast more rain till Saturday.
"An alert for very heavy rain at isolated places in
Bihar has been issued for Tuesday and the state is likely to witness scattered rainfall throughout this week," an official at Patna meteorological centre said on Monday, adding that the
Southwest
monsoon was active over Bihar causing light to extremely heavy rainfall in different parts of the state.
Patnaites should also brace up for partly cloudy sky with spells of rain or thundershowers till Saturday and heavy rain on September 18.
The showers, however, will keep the weather pleasant with the maximum and minimum temperatures expected to be a few notches below normal.
On Monday, too, the maximum and minimum temperatures recorded in Patna was 30.5 degrees and 21.6 degree Celsius, two and four degrees below normal, respectively. The relative humidity in the state capital, however, was 98% in the morning and 86% in the evening.
Sunday night was scary for Patnaites with unrelenting thunderstorms with torrential rain that lashed the city around 11pm and continued for several hours till early Monday morning. In all, 135.6mm rainfall was recorded in the state capital from 8.30am on Sunday till 5.30pm on Monday. The heaviest spell of 122.5mm rainfall was recorded between 11.30pm and 5.30am on the interceding night of Sunday and Monday.
Weathermen attributed the "more than usual rainfall" to the monsoon trough passing through Patna on Sunday. "Heavy rain is generally witnessed along the axis of the monsoon trough, causing Sunday night's incessant downpour," a local Met official said, adding that the thunderstorms that kept many Patnaites awake for a good part of the night was "a result of the cumulonimbus cloud formation over the city".
Met scientist B N Choudhary told TOI on Monday, "In recent memory, it is difficult to remember Patna witnessing such a high rainfall in a single spell."
The intensity of the rain may be understood by the stats furnished by the
IMD's Customised Rainfall Information System. From June 1 till date, Patna district received 699.7mm rainfall as against a normal of 821.4%, resulting in a 15% deficit. However, on Monday alone, Patna received 67.2mm rainfall against a normal of 11.2mm, meaning an excess of 500%. Meanwhile, the rain deficit in Bihar has also been reduced to 10%.
Besides Patna, Bhagalpur received 65mm rainfall while
Purnia
recorded 39mm rain on Monday.