South Gujarat receives heavy rains; more showers likely in next 1 week

Some south Gujarat districts received heavy showers on Tuesday with the state's average annual rainfall for the monsoon season rising to 116 percent on the back of bountiful rains, officials said.

The weather office has issued a forecast of heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in several districts of Gujarat over the next one week.

Parts of Bharuch, Tapi and Surat districts received more than 100 mm rainfall in a 12-hour period ended at 6 pm on Tuesday. Valia and Netrang talukas of Bharuch district received 156 mm and 127 mm rains, respectively.

Surat's Uparpada and Valsad taluka of Valsad district received 105 mm and 104 mm rains, respectively, during the period, State Emergency Operation Centre data showed.

At 442 mm, rains in August in Gujarat surpassed the amount of rain received in July, and the season's average annual rains stood at 116.22 percent, the SEOC said.

While the Kutch region has received the highest amount of average rainfall of 179 percent so far this season, Saurashtra and south Gujarat have experienced 125 and 117 percent of average annual precipitation, respectively, according to the data.

At the same time, north and east-central Gujarat lagged behind with 94 and 113 percent of average annual rains so far, respectively, the SEOC said.

On Monday, the monsoon remained vigorous over Gujarat with extremely heavy rainfall occurring at isolated places in Bharuch, Surat and Tapi districts, the India Meteorological Department said.

At the same time, isolated places in the districts of Kheda, Aravalli, Mahisagar, Sabarkantha, Tapi, Bharuch, Narmada, Navsari, Dangs, Vadodara, Valsad, Surat and in Daman received very heavy showers, the IMD said.

The weather office has issued a forecast of heavy to very heavy rains at isolated places in several districts of Gujarat over the next one week.

Meanwhile, the government's weather watch group met at Gandhinagar to review the situation in view of the forecast of light to very heavy rains in Gujarat during the next one week, with the relief directorate issuing necessary directions to the departments concerned to stay alert.

Departments concerned have been asked to take measures to resolve the issue of flooding and ensure vector-borne diseases do not spread, said the officials.