IMD’s Ranchi Meteorological Centre on Tuesday issued a forecast of rain and thunderstorm over Jharkhand for the next few days due to Nor'wester activity.

Officials said a cyclonic circulation was prevailing over southeast Uttar Pradesh and its neighbouring areas at 1.5 km above the mean sea level. This coupled with a trough stretched from Punjab to Bangladesh across south Haryana, south Uttar Pradesh, south Bihar and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal at 0.9 km above mean sea level would help in triggering rain and thunderstorm activity over several Jharkhand districts.

Both IMD’s Ranchi and Patna offices issued a forecast of a cloudy sky with rain and thunderstorm over northeastern, central and southern parts of Jharkhand during the next 72 hours.

Officials in IMD’s regional centre at Alipore in Calcutta said the south-easterly wind was dominating over Jharkhand, resulting in moisture incursion and formation of clouds.

Met data suggested that light to moderate rain with thundershower occurred at isolated places over the state during the past 24 hours while heavy rainfall was recorded at one or two places over the state. Hail was also experienced at Hazaribagh. The highest rainfall recorded was 65.4 mm at Rajmahal (Sahibganj).

A commuter caught in the sudden showers in Jamshedpur on Tuesday evening. Picture by Bhola Prasad

The highest maximum temperature of 40.8°C was recorded at Daltonganj while the lowest minimum temperature 20.3°C was recorded at Deoghar.

Rain statistics revealed that Dumka recorded 49.2 mm of rain in the past 24- hours while Godda recorded 48.4 mm.

Several other places including Deoghar, Jamtara, Pakur and Ramgarh witnessed rain and thunderstorm activity in the last 24 hours.

The rain and thunderstorm activity resulted in an abrupt fall in the day's reading across the state.

The maximum temperature in Ranchi and its adjoining areas dropped to around 34°C while Jamshedpur for the last two days recorded maximum reading of 36 °C.

The day's reading plummeted to 33°C on Tuesday while Giridih, Godda and several other places recorded around 35°C.

The rain and thunderstorm activity during the last two days prompted the weather office to withdraw the heatwave alert. The relentless heatwave which began in Jharkhand around March 29 continued for over one month.