Telangana braces for two-day rains

Hyderabad: The next 48 hours, starting from September 21, are crucial for the state with a warning of heavy rainfall being issued for all districts of TS.  The northern parts of the state will receive very heavy rainfall, with the intensity decreasing towards the southern districts that includes Hyderabad city. The warning comes because of a deep depression that has developed over the Bay of Bengal and is likely to intensify and turn into a cyclone, said the weather department.

The south-west monsoon currents that were weak over the last few weeks have turned normal over Telangana. The state got rainfall on Thursday, with Nalgonda, Vikarabad Medak, J Bhupalpally,  Mahbubnagar, Jogulamba Gadwal, Nagarkurnool, and Kamareddy districts receiving heavy rains. Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist of Skymet, an independent weather observatory, said, “Depending on the wind direction, the deep depression formed over the Bay is likely to turn into a cyclone by late Thursday.”

For the coming two days, a forecast of ‘very’ heavy spell is issued for Northern Telangana districts and ‘heavy’ rains for the central and south districts. The depression will withdraw from September 22 as rain clouds travel toward Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha.

Hyderabad is likely to receive rain or thundershowers towards the evening or night hours. The day temperatures would drop in the coming 48 hours. There may be a continuous spell or 'flash rain' (heavy spells of short duration) depending on the moisture present in the air.

The city's Disaster Management Wing has eight teams in place to tackle any flood like situation. Speaking to this newspaper, Vishwajith Kampati, director, Enforcement, Vigilance & Disaster Management, said, “The department has a separate command and control room that is monitoring the movement of the depression. The weather models issue alerts 12 hours prior to the rainfall. This gives us ample time to put arrangements in place. Eight disaster relief forces have been deployed, apart from 20 monsoon emergency teams to tackle flood like situation. The city may face inconvenience if the quantum of rain is 6- 8 cm per hour.”