Heavy rains are likely to Assam, Arunachal and Meghalaya for next 48 hours
Guwahati: The monsoon 2020 has been an excessively wet season for parts of northeast India like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. As per the latest forecast, extremely heavy rains are likely to continue to lash parts of these three states for the next 48 hours—forcing the met department to issue a red warning for Friday.
Under the influence of these meteorological conditions, widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls and thunderstorms are expected over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam & Meghalaya on Friday and decrease thereafter. The IMD also predicts isolated extremely heavy rainfall over these three states on Friday.
Owing to the rough weather, the regional met department in Guwahati has placed district Baksa of Assam under red alert for Friday. The warning urges residents to ‘take action’ to minimise the impact of a heavy downpour. Moreover, other districts namely Kokrajhar, Chirang, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Dima Hasao have been placed under an orange alert for today, which instructs residents to ‘be prepared’ for the rough weather.
Four districts—West Kameng, East Kameng, Lower Dibang Valley and Changlang—have been placed under red alert for Friday. Other districts like Lower Subansiri, Papumpare, East Siang, Lower Siang, Dibang Valley, Anjaw, Namsai are placed under an orange alert for today.
The intensity of rainfall is expected to subside from Saturday onwards. The advisory levels over both Assam and Meghalaya would be demoted to orange alert for Saturday, while a yellow watch has been placed across Arunachal Pradesh.
Since the beginning of the southwest monsoon season, both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have recorded rainfall of 1,584 mm and 1,802 mm respectively—‘normal’ amounts as compared to their respective long-term average figures for the period between June 1 and September 24.
Meghalaya, on the other hand, has received ‘excess’ rainfall of 3,526 mm—27% more when compared to its long term average of this period. Meghalaya is the second-rainiest state in India right now, behind Goa, which has recorded more than 4,000 mm rainfall so far this season.
