PANAJI: Owing to the increased activity and possible impact of rainfall over Goa, the India meteorological department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for July 16 and 17. The department has warned that the very heavy rainfall activity is likely to continue till July 20.
The department has warned that the areas vulnerable to landslides and flooding must be kept under monitoring. “Water levels in rivers may be monitored and necessary precautions may kindly be taken,” IMD said.
The IMD had issued a red alert for Goa on Thursday, and the incessant rainfall activity on the day saw 10 rain gauge stations receive more than 100mm of rainfall each.
The Pernem station recorded the highest at 190mm by 8.30am on Thursday. It was the only station to almost reach the 200mm mark in 24 hours. Sanguem followed close behind, recording 181mm of rainfall in a day.
IMD has attributed the reason for the increase in rainfall in the coming days to certain systems prevailing, such as an East West shear zone above mean sea level tilting southwards, a cyclonic circulation over east Vidarbha and neighbourhood areas extending up to 4.5km above mean sea level and the formation of an off-shore trough off the Karnataka-Kerala coasts.
“There are indications by numerical weather prediction models that, after July 15, rainfall activity may increase again by around July 18. The likelihood of very heavy rainfall of 115.6mm to 204.4mm in 24 hours continues over Goa up to July 20 with scattered and isolated spatial distributions,” IMD stated.
