Arm yourself with an umbrella whenever you go out, advises the weatherman. The weather department has predicted that the weather in the Northeast would swing. There will be heavy showers followed by intense heat and humidity.

“It will be very hot for the rest of the month. We however, predict heavy rain on Saturday again and after that the weather will swing between two extremes – heavy showers and extreme heat till the monsoon arrives next month,” said Sunit Das, scientist of the Regional Meteorological Centre in Guwahati.

It had been hot and humid for the past three days. Today, the temperature touched 34 degrees Celsius but AccWeather, a weather portal, listed the “real feel” at 47 degrees Celsius.

“Humidity is responsible for the difference between the actual weather and the real feel” said Das. The sales of umbrella have increased in the city.

“The sale has increased by around 30 per cent over the past two weeks,” said Kailash Choudhury, an umbrella shop owner in Ullubari in Assam.

The weather report said day temperatures rose sharply in Arunachal Pradesh. Temperatures were above normal in Assam, Tripura and Manipur but normal in Meghalaya during the past 24 hours. Guwahati and the nearby areas had a partly cloudy sky. The weather department predicted thundershowers towards the evening. Tomorrow the maximum temperature will be 35 degree Celsius and the minimum temperature will be 23 degrees.

The pre-monsoon showers had left the people of the Northeast in trouble. Nine persons died in April because of lightning while hailstorm and cyclonic winds caused havoc in several areas of the state. Indications are that it is over now, said a report of the Borjhar-based Regional Meteorological Centre.

“The upper air cyclonic circulation over east Assam and its neighbouring states has cleared. This is an indication that the pre-monsoon weather that included heavy lightning, hail squalls, storms, sporadic rain and cloudy sky is over,” Das said.

“With the rise in temperature, the demand for power has increased considerably,” said an official of the Assam Power Distribution Corporation Limited (APDCL). “The state has sufficient power supply at its disposal to meet the increased requirement of power.”

While the power department meets only 30 per cent of the total power requirement of the state, the remaining 70 per cent is purchased or sourced from outside.

[Prepared by Animesh Vats from media sources]

  Assam, power supply, weather