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Dry spell to last this week: MET department

You need not carry your umbrella or raincoat this week. For weathermen have predicted a dry spell in the city that will last till the end of the week.

Updated on: Aug 5, 2009, 01:40:18 IST
Hindustan Times | By , Mumbai
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You need not carry your umbrella or raincoat this week. For weathermen have predicted a dry spell in the city that will last till the end of the week.

HT Image
HT Image

“The monsoon trough has moved northward. Therefore, the city is facing a lull period which will continue,” said RV Sharma, deputy director, India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The city didn’t get any significant rainfall for the last 10 days. The rainfall deficit that had reduced to double digits in the first week of July has again jumped over the 100 mm mark.

Till now, it has rained 283 mm less than the normal average in the island city while the suburbs have a deficit of 102 mm.

More worrying is the fact that this year, the monsoon has followed the procrastinations made by climate scientists, which says the southwest monsoon will become more erratic with longer lull periods followed by few days of intense rain.

K. Krishnakumar, programme director (climate change) with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in a researched presentation recently observed that the number of rainy days in the city would shrink by half but the amount of rainfall would remain the same.

A day when it rains more than 2.5 mm is recorded as a rainy day. This means that the city would have to handle 80 days of rainfall in just 40 days.

Sources in the IMD Mumbai office said the city has received less than 20 rainy days till now.

“We can reveal rainy days’ data only at the end of the season,” said Sharma.

An immediate effect of the lull period is that the temperature shots up and humidity level increases. The temperature in the city has crossed the 31 degree Celsius mark while the relativity humidity has been hovering around 90 per cent.

  • Soubhik Mitra
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Soubhik Mitra

    Soubhik Mitra is an assistant editor with the Hindustan Times. The Mumbai boy has spent over a decade reporting on civic, environmental and political issues. His current stint is the longest where he writes on aviation and travel.Read More

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