Hyderabad: Unseasoned heavy rains, coupled with hailstorms across the state for the past few days mark this year’s March as the wettest in ten years.
After Hyderabad experienced the second hottest February in a decade, March brought in a winter and rainy combination of weather.
Kapra, in the neighbourhood of the city, recorded the highest rainfall of 6.28 cm, while most areas in north Hyderabad witnessed heavy rains coupled with hailstones in several places including Gajularamaram and Kukatapally recording 5.6 cm and 5.05 cm of rainfall respectively.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD-Hyderabad) officials, the phenomenon is abnormal for the month of March when the temperature should have gradually increased as winter subsides completely.
“It was not a normal thunderstorm and hailstorm event that covered almost the entire Telangana. This was because of the presence of two troughs or depressions – east to west and north to south – occurring simultaneously,” the IMD-Hyderabad chief told TOI.
According to statistics collated by Telangana State Development and Planning Society, Telangana received 4.35 cm of rainfall in March 10 years ago.
A decade later, the monthly cumulative until March 19 in the state stands at 3.81 cm while the highest March rainfall of 10.74 cm was recorded in 2008.
Surprisingly, the month of March has witnessed average rainfall exceeding 3 cm only six times in 25 years since 1988.
Another weather expert held that such events are witnessed owing to western disturbances or the winds from the west of India.
However, this year the western disturbances came as a jet stream towards Telangana which instead of being 10 km to 15 km above sea level were extremely low, bringing in massive rainfall and hailstorms.
The experts further claimed that strong unseasonal rain in March might suggest the El Nino effect, which is known to make monsoons weaker and non-monsoon unseasonal showers stronger.
“However, the arrival of the monsoons cannot be predicated until May,” said experts.
Red alert for rains issued
Many areas in Hyderabad were also issued a red alert on March 18 while the unseasons rain videos trended on social media.
Rains cause heavy losses to crop cultivation sector
Crops cultivated on more than 20,000 acres of land were damaged following unseasonal rains.
Maize, green gram, papaya and mango and other crops, most of which were in flowering and ripening stages were destroyed by the hailstorm that lashed Telangana on Thursday and Friday.
Horticultural crops like mango, rose, onion, and papaya and agricultural crop like maize were damaged by the hailstorm.
According to Agriculture department officials, over 18,826 acres of maize, farmed by around 1,930 farmers, was damaged in the erstwhile Khammam district alone.
Mangoes prices likely to hike over unseasonal rain
Unseasonal rains and pest attacks have affected many mango crops in different districts of the state, resulting in a double blow to their yield.
unseasonal rains and pest attacks have affected many mango crops in different districts of the state, resulting in a double blow to their yield.
Out of the total production of mangoes in the neighbouring districts of Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana, a significant portion is exported to foreign countries like Gulf countries, China, Australia, and others which is also going to be affected subsequently.
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