the goan I network
PANAJI
As of Monday, certain isolated areas in Goa reported light rainfall, with the highest being 10.8 mm reported at Pernem station, Rahul M, a scientist at the Met Department said. Monday also saw the capital city and other parts of Goa enveloped in low grey clouds, which the scientist attributed to a trough (extended region of relatively low atmospheric pressure) existing over Kerala and Karnataka that was bringing a lot of moisture to Goa’s coast. The Met Department expects this situation to exist for at least 48 hours, and is expecting light to moderate rainfall in isolated regions in Goa for the next 4-5 more days.
“Clouding will continue, so we’re expecting generally
cloudy or sometimes overcast skies,” said Rahul. Meanwhile, he also said that the monsoon has progressed to the Southern most parts of the Arabian Sea. “Conditions are favourable for its advance so it’s expected to hit the Kerala coast in the next 72 hours as expected,” said Rahul.
As for the delay in the monsoons this year, Rahul said that the flow of monsoon current from the Southern Hemisphere to Northern Hemisphere in the initial stages was not sufficient. “There are
other criteria like a certain windspeed for the monsoon to progress, which was not as required, so we could not declare the monsoons,” he said. He also explained that pressure current had to be created for the monsoons to advance from the Andaman Sea to the mainland, and this pressure current wasn’t enough. “We’ve forecast the monsoons for June 6 with a variation of plus or minus four days,” he said.
When asked if the delay of the monsoon’s arrival was a result of climate change, Rahul said that it was difficult to comment on that with only two years of data, as monsoons would need to be studied over a period of at least 30 years, preferably more, to link the two. “Climate change is taking place slowly, but we can’t directly link the delay in monsoons to it,” he said.
As of now, the Department has not issued a warning to fishermen under the prevailing weather conditions. Once the monsoon sets in and wind speeds increase over the sea to 50-60 kilometers per hour, weather warnings will be issued to fishermen.
Goa not affected
by heatwave due
to coastal location
PANAJI: While many parts of India are experiencing a heatwave, Rahul M, scientist at the Met Dept said on Monday that Goa was not affected by the heat wave because of its proximity to the sea.
“The criteria to declare the heatwave for inland stations and coastal stations is different. Because of the
proximity to the sea, coastal stations are very rarely affected by heatwaves. The temperature always remains within limits because of the coast,” he said. Now of course, due to the change in weather, and cloudy skies, there was no possibility of any heatwave hitting Goa. The highest temperature recorded in May in Goa was recorded on May 18 at 34.7 degrees, around 1.5 degrees above normal for that day, said Rahul.
