New Delhi, July 27: India is set to witness widespread heavy rainfall over the coming days as two active monsoon systems a depression over the northwest Bay of Bengal and a low pressure area over west Rajasthan continue to strengthen the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Satellite images from INSAT-3DR captured on July 26 show the Bay of Bengal depression developing into a dense cloud mass with extremely cold cloud tops, indicating intense thunderstorm activity. At the same time, the Arabian Sea is supplying large amounts of moisture through strong southwesterly winds, fuelling rainfall over western and central India.
The monsoon depression was centred near 20.6°N and 88.4°E, around 130 kilometres off West Bengal’s Sagar Island on Saturday morning. According to the IMD, the system is expected to intensify into a deep depression before crossing the north Odisha-West Bengal coast between Paradip and Sagar Island on July 27.
The depression is expected to trigger isolated extremely heavy rainfall over Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, with the rain belt extending into Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra as the system moves inland.
Meanwhile the Arabian Sea is not hosting a cyclonic system but is playing a crucial role by transporting moisture toward Gujarat, western India and the Western Ghats. Strong convection along the Konkan coast, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala is expected to sustain heavy rainfall over these regions.
Meteorologists said the two weather systems are connected through an east west shear zone stretching across central India near 23°N. The atmospheric feature helps lift moist air, strengthening rainfall across a broad region.
The IMD has also forecast fairly widespread rainfall over Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh during the last week of July as the monsoon trough shifts northward.
In the past 24 hours ending July 26, Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur recorded 33 cm of rainfall, highlighting the intensity of the ongoing monsoon activity.
The weather agency has warned of low to moderate flash flood risk in parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Squally winds of 55–65 kmph, gusting up to 75 kmph, are expected over the north Bay of Bengal from July 27, prompting authorities to advise fishermen to avoid venturing into the sea until July 29.
According to the IMD, the Bay of Bengal depression, moisture supply from the Arabian Sea and the connecting shear zone are likely to keep rainfall activity vigorous across large parts of the country through the end of July.