Hoping for rains in Gujarat? Wait for one more week

Put away your raincoats and umbrellas for now. The cloudy skyline might make you expect rains but the state’s weather office says the state may go thirsty for one more week. Due to subdued monsoon conditions that prevail over the state, rains will arrive only after July 6.

Dr Kamaljit Ray, director, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, “Although the possibility of an unexpected, isolated drizzle cannot be ruled out, on the whole, subdued monsoon conditions are prevailing over the state. Widespread rains are not expected to occur for the next one week.”

The Central IMD’s weather bulletin notes that northern limit of monsoon (NLM) continues to pass through 22.0°N/60.0°E, Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Ajmer, Pilani and Ganganagar. However, the offshore trough that continued from south Gujarat coast to Kerala has shifted towards south Maharashtra coast. And very low to medium clouds are seen over the state.

Hence the forecast for Gujarat is that mainly cloudy sky would prevail in Kutch, while light to moderate thundershowers can occur at isolated places in south Gujarat and Saurashtra.

The central weather office’s outlook update notes that scattered rain would occur over remaining parts of the country, other than Rajasthan and Gujarat. The increase in rainfall activity over central India, that includes Gujarat, is only expected to occur after July 6.