Monsoon may further improve next week in NE

Agartala, Jul 18 (UNI) The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) has forecasted improvement of monsoon rain in the next two weeks in the North East, except Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, which was about 25 per cent less than normal till July 15.

According to an NCMRWF report, though rainfall in NE was about one per cent higher than that of last year, actually it is about 21 per cent below the mean rainfall up to the second week of July in Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram and about 28 per cent below in Assam and Meghalaya.

Weathermen said here today that the cumulative seasonal rainfall during this year's monsoon had been 6 per cent above the long period average for the country as a whole and except South Peninsula and Central India monsoon rain was higher than last year's.

They said good rainfall activity would continue over the NE states and northern plains in next week mainly due to shifting of the monsoon trough towards the foothills of the Himalayas.

Referring to NCMRWF analysis, Mr Dhiman Daschoudhuri, Technical Officer, Agromet Advisory Service of ICAR Tripura, said the monsoon trough at mean sea level continued to lie along the foothills of the Himalayas and numerical weather prediction models suggest that the trough, especially the eastern end, is likely to remain over the same region during the next one week.

As a result, enhanced rainfall activity with isolated heavy to very heavy falls are likely over the northeastern states, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Bihar, Mr Daschoudhuri added.

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