Jamshedpur, June 20 : The meterological department has issued warning of intense lightning and thundershowers in isolated pockets ofthe district during the next 24-hours.
Last night several places including Jamshedpur saw intense lightning and thunder showers and continued for over one hour. The local IMD observatory in Jamshedpur recorded 37.4 mm of rain.
Meanwhile, the Ranchi Meteorological Centre in its afternoon bulletin declared that the southwest monsoon has become active over Jharkhand. ” We are keeping a vigil on changing weather patern. The monsoon has become active over the state due to three weather systems.
We are expecting good spell of rain with isolated heavy rains at a few isolated pockets in the next 48 hours,” said Upendra Srivastava, a senior official of Ranchi Meteorological Centre.
Statistics revealed that Dhanbad experienced 70 mm of rain while Jamtara recorded 60 mm of rain during the last 24- hours. Ghatshila in East Singhbhum recorded 40 mm of rain while Chandil in adjoining Seraikela=Kharsawan saw 30 mm of rain. Chaibasa in West Singhbhum and several other places recorded 10 mm of rain. Jamshedpur had created a record of sorts when it recorded 698mm of rain in the month of June in 2008.
�Conditions are favourable for south-west monsoon to advance. We are expecting monsoon showers to arrive in the next 48 hours. Several districts will start experiencing pre-monsoon rains from today,� said an official of Patna Met office.
The Patna Meteorological Office and the Regional Meteorological Centre at Alipore, Kolkata, have both predicted �moderate rain between June 20 and 27�.
�As the monsoon current is not very strong, it will yield rainfall ranging between 30mm and 40mm, but showers will be widespread,� said a duty officer at Kolkata Met office. He added that satellite pictures indicated multi-layered rain-bearing clouds over many Jharkhand�s districts.