People of Chhattisgarh woke up to a soothing music of rain droplets around them into the wee hours of Sunday morning, as the much-awaited and desperately-needed ‘South West Monsoon’ (SW) finally turned active and enveloped the entire region with raining pleasantries. With monsoon opening its account on a good note in Chhattisgarh, Pusaur Tehsil, situated some 18-kilometers from the city limits of industrial district Raigarh, recorded a highest 10 centimetres (cm) of rains, followed by Simga accounting for 9 cm showers. But quietly strangely, the entrant day of monsoon into Chhattisgarh skipped the forested division of Bastar. Though the south west monsoon covered most of Chhattisgarh today, technically it took over 48 hours to become fully active in the region, even as the weathermen affirmed that the rain-filled clouds have made its welcome entry into State on June 23rd itself. Yet, the cool drizzles saw the weather stations across the state recording a fall in the maximum temperature from -2 to -7 degrees respectively, in comparison to past 48 hours.

 

“Barring the densely forested Bastar division, rain phenomenon featuring light to medium showers at many while heavy rains at a couple of places, was recorded with several weather stations fanned across the major revenue divisions of Chhattisgarh including Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur and Surguja. As per the officials statistics, Sarangarh, Balodabazar received 7 cm rains; Baramkela, Raigarh, Dharamjaigarh 6 cm; Dhabra, Labhandi, Kasdol, Tamnar, Baikunthpur and Mana 5 cm; Khadgawan, Balrampur, Rajpur-Bhatapara, Tilda 4 cm; Odgi, Manendragarh, Raipur, Bilaspur, Kharsia, Ramanujgunj, Kartala, Kunkuri, Pratappur, Malkharoda 3 cm; Bhaiyathan, Manora, Bagicha, Bemetara, Ambikapur, Sheorinarayan, Gharhoda, Takhatpur, Prem Nagar 2 cm and some other places recorded even lesser receipt of the rains in State,” said an official communiqué by Raipur-based Meteorological Centre of India Meteorological Department (IMD). As per the IMD data, Jagdalpur, the divisional headquarters of Bastar, recorded nil rains during the morning hours, while a negligible 0.5 cm in the evening hours on the account of SW becoming active all over Chhattisgarh. Consequently, Jagdalpur also registered a maximum temperature of 30.1 degree Celsius, the second highest in the state after ARG Balrampur and Pendra Road, which recorded 31 degree and 30.6 degree respectively.

 

In between, the weathermen have made the forecast of light to medium showers in maximum places in the state, while a couple of locations may have heavy to very heavy rains coupled with lightning phenomenon. For Raipur, the weather forecast says that it will be cloudy throughout the day, but the city may be lashed with showers during the evening or late night hours, coupled with both light and sound effects. Meanwhile, the showers have brought cheers to the farming community of Chhattisgarh, even as it got delayed and now the farming activities have been put into top gear all over the state. Most importantly, the civic authorities here in Raipur didn’t receive any complaints of water-logging on the entry day of SW monsoon.