E-Paper
Heavy rain warning for West Bengal, N-E; air pollution spikes over NW India
Light to moderate rainfall is likely at many places and heavy showers in some places over Gangetic West Bengal, according to the IMD
The depression over the north-west Bay of Bengal off coastal Odisha is likely to cross West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts over the Sundarbans on Friday afternoon.
Light to moderate rainfall is likely at most places with heavy to very heavy precipitation, measuring between 115.6-204.4 millimetres (mm) a day, and extremely intense showers of over 204.4 mm is likely to occur at isolated places over Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya due to the unfavourable weather condition.
Light to moderate rainfall is likely at many places and heavy showers in some places over Gangetic West Bengal, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) authorities.
The depression has moved north-north-eastwards with a wind speed of upto 10 kilometres (km) per hour (kmph) during the past six hours and is situated about 90 km east-south-east of Paradip in Odisha, 170 km south-south-west of Sagar Islands in West Bengal and 340 km west-south-west of Khepupara in Bangladesh.
The depression is likely to move north-north-eastwards and cross West Bengal and adjoining Bangladesh coasts between Sagar islands and Khepupara over the Sundarbans by Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the air quality in north-west India has further worsened. Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 355 on Friday morning.
AQI between 301 and 400 is considered in the very poor category range. Baghpat, Bahadurgarh, Ballabgarh, Bhiwadi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Lucknow, Moradabad, and Panipat also recorded AQI in the very poor category range.
“The AQI has worsened mainly because of a significant reduction in wind speed on Thursday. There was no wind at night on Thursday and Friday early morning. As a result, the conditions are unfavourable for dispersion of pollutants. We are expecting similar conditions to prevail until next week,” said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre (RWFC).
