State likely to receive light to moderate rain till Tuesday: IMD

Panaji: After a fortnight that saw the mercury stuck on 36°C-plus and 28°C-plus almost continuously, the pre-monsoon rain is gaining a little momentum, as India Meteorological Department (IMD), Panaji, forecast light to moderate rainfall for three more days till Tuesday.

The showers are likely during late afternoon or night hours while thunderstorm accompanied with lightning and gusty winds up to 40kmph may occur in isolated places on Sunday and Monday, states IMD bulletin.

An upper air cyclonic circulation prevailing over northeast Vidarbha and its neighbourhood has triggered the cloudy conditions.

With conditions favourable for advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of southeast Arabian Sea soon, light to moderate rain activity has started in Goa, providing some relief from the exceedingly discomfiting weather conditions a fortnight.

During 24 hours till Friday morning, the highest pre-monsoon rainfall of 3.4mm was recorded, as compared to 3.1mm recorded on May 9 and 3mm on Wednesday.

This reduced the deficit in pre-monsoon rain to 38.1%, as the actual total so far touched 12.8mm while 20.6mm is considered normal at this stage.

The light but widespread rain during 24 hours till Friday morning also brought down the maximum temperature to 33.4°C on Friday, though it rose slightly to 34.6°C on Saturday.