It is going to be a wet Deepavali at many places in Andhra Pradesh as parts of south coastal Andhra Pradesh have been forecast to receive thunderstorms with lightning from Friday to Monday. The Met department had forecast similar weather on Thursday as well, for parts of Srikakulam, Yanam and Rayalaseema districts.
According to data from the Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society, Praksham and Nellore received the highest rainfall, as on Friday morning. While Ongole in Prakasam received 90.5 mm, Kavali, Jaladanki, Bogole and Tada in Nellore district also received heavy rainfall between 70 to 87.5 mm.
If the data from June is considered, Andhra Pradesh has already received rainfall that amounts to a deviation of 16.4% from the normal. Eight out of 13 districts have recorded excess rainfall.
Heavy rainfall was reported in Nellore town and this led to many parts getting inundated. In West Godavari district, there was heavy rain for more than half-an-hour near Bhimavaram, and in places such as Kalla, Kallakuru, Seesali, Doddanapudi and other villages. Thursday was cloudy with no sun, and strong winds blew before it rained in the afternoon in these places. For Sunday, there is a forecast for heavy rainfall at isolated places in south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema.
Likewise, the trough from southwest Bay of Bengal off Sri Lanka coast to west central part off northern Andhra Pradesh now runs above the cyclonic circulation.
It runs towards southwest Bay of Bengal off north Tamil Nadu coast and extends up to 1.5 km above the mean sea level.
In a glaring contrast to earlier days, all the monitored places except three recorded a maximum temperature of below 29.8-degree Celsius on Thursday, lower than the normal temperature. The three places which logged maximum temperatures above 30-degree Celsius were Nandigama (30.1), Vijayawada (30) and Anantapur (30.9).
The heavy rains and floods in Andhra Pradesh have already resulted in agricultural and infrastructural damage. The total loss has been estimated to be around Rs 8,084 crore, of which Rs 5,000 crore was due to infrastructure damages.
(With IANS inputs)