With heavy rainfall forecast to persist across Uttar Pradesh, the India meteorological department (IMD) has placed multiple districts under red, orange, and yellow alerts. This spell of intense weather follows a welcome boost in monsoon activity, which has successfully pulled the state’s seasonal rain deficit into the ‘normal’ category at 17% as of Tuesday morning. Alongside this, IMD also predicted scattered heavy rainfall across the state through August 23.
According to IMD, the western end of the monsoon trough has shifted north of its normal position towards the Himalayan foothills, running from Shahjahanpur and Varanasi through concentrated low-pressure areas in Jharkhand and on to the North-East Bay of Bengal via Digha. This strong monsoon flow has resulted in active conditions across the state for the next two days.
Subsequently, the IMD has issued a red alert for Wednesday, indicating a high probability of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in nine districts: Banda, Chitrakoot, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Chandauli, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Mahoba and surrounding regions.
An orange alert has been issued for Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Hamirpur, Lalitpur and surrounding areas, signaling a high probability of heavy to very heavy rainfall. A yellow alert for heavy rainfall has been issued for 11 districts: Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Kannauj, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Unnao, Raebareli, Amethi, Sultanpur, Auraiya, Jalaun, Jhansi and their surrounding regions.
Due to this surge in monsoon activity, UP’s seasonal rainfall has improved, dragging the state’s overall deficit into the “normal” category. The deficit plummeted from 22% on Sunday to 17% by Tuesday morning, according to seasonal rainfall distribution data from the Regional Meteorological Centre, Lucknow.
In the last 24 hours, the average rainfall recorded across the state was 19.5 mm. Bijnor recorded the heaviest rainfall at 118.6 mm, followed by Sambhal (102.2 mm), Prayagraj (73.4 mm) and Moradabad (66.6 mm).
Seven meteorological observatories in UP recorded extremely heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours: Meja (Prayagraj) received 192 mm; Dhampur (Bijnor), 162 mm; Gunnaur (Sambhal), 150 mm; Koraon (Prayagraj), 126 mm; Ghorawal (Sonbhadra), 123 mm; Bijnor, 146 mm; and Nagina (Bijnor), 140 mm.
Several other observatories also recorded significant rainfall: Chhatnaag (Prayagraj) 115 mm, Aliganj (Etah) 100 mm, Bilari (Moradabad) 97.4 mm, Phaphamau (Prayagraj) 96.8 mm, Sahaswan (Budaun) 91 mm, Sambhal 91 mm, Karwi (Chitrakoot) 92 mm, Khurja (Bulandshahr) 85.4 mm, Thakurdwara (Moradabad) 84 mm, Rajapur (Chitrakoot) 81 mm, Lalganj-Aara (Pratapgarh) 80 mm, Shahabad (Rampur) 77.3 mm, Chhibramau (Kannauj) 77.6 mm, Chandpur (Bijnor) 73 mm, Najibabad (Bijnor) 72 mm, Sahawar (Kasganj) 72 mm, Bhinga (Shravasti) 70 mm, Kanth (Moradabad) 70 mm, Prayagraj 69.7 mm, Fatehpur 67.4 mm, Karchhana (Prayagraj) 66 mm, Fursatganj (Amethi) 66 mm, Bilaspur (Rampur) 66 mm, and Chandausi (Sambhal) 65.5 mm.
Overall, the state has recorded 418 mm of rainfall against a long-period average of 504.5 mm, a 17% deficit since June 1. Distribution remains uneven, with West UP faring better than East UP. East UP has received 403.3 mm against the normal 534.8 mm (a 25% deficit), while West UP received 439 mm against the normal 462 mm (a 5% deficit).
Similarly, the state capital’s rain deficit dropped from 21% on Sunday to 16% on Tuesday, thanks to brisk rainfall over the last 72 hours. During the 24 hours leading up to 8:30 am on Tuesday, the district received 25.8 mm, bringing its 72-hour total to 75.5 mm. Since June 1, Lucknow has recorded 375.8 mm of rainfall against a normal of 446.9 mm, representing a 16% deficit.
37 UP districts face deficit to large deficit rainfall
Despite the surge in monsoon activity, only 29 districts have experienced normal rainfall (ranging from -19% to +19%). Statewide, 30 districts have received deficient rainfall (-20% to -59%), while another seven districts recorded “large deficient” rainfall (-60% to -99%).
Only nine UP districts have experienced excess or large excess rainfall this season. Six districts saw “excess” rainfall (20% to 59%): Kannauj (21%), Bijnor (22%), Firozabad (22%), Hamirpur (23%), Chitrakoot (27%), and Etah (38%). Three West UP districts saw “large excess” rain (60% and above): Meerut (71%), Muzaffarnagar (79%) and Sambhal (95%).
While in the state capital on Tuesday, maximum and minimum temperatures recorded were 31.2 and 25.4 degrees Celsius respectively. The forecast for Wednesday is generally cloudy sky with light rain. The maximum and minimum temperature will be around 33 and 26 Degree Celsius respectively.
