Kutch, Saurashtra, north Gujarat to get light rain around New Year: IMD

“The northerly winds bring the temperature down while the south westerly and easterly winds which are prevailing at present result in higher temperatures," Das added.

Kutch, Saurashtra region and some parts of north Gujarat are likely to receive light rain around New Year, which will bring down the prevailing above normal temperatures in Gujarat, According to the weather forecast of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), light rain is predicted in Kutch on December 30 while the districts of North Gujarat region including Banaskantha, Patan, in the districts of Saurashtra including Jamnagar, Morbi, Dwarka along with Kutch are expected to get light rain on December 31 and January 1 morning.

“Due to the Western Disturbance (WD) as a trough in middle tropospheric westerlies above mean sea level, certain parts of Gujarat are expected to receive rainfall on the new year eve and new year. Light rainfall is predicted for today (December 30) in Kutch and some Saurashtra and northern districts on Wednesday and Thursday morning,” IMD regional director A K Das told The Indian Express.

For the last few days, both maximum and minimum temperatures are above normal across centres in the state. On Tuesday too, while the maximum temperature was between 1-2 degrees above normal, it was the night time temperatures that recorded a major departure— 0.5-4.6 degrees-above normal — in the state.

The IMD cited the wind pattern as the reason for the major shift. “The northerly winds bring the temperature down while the south westerly and easterly winds which are prevailing at present result in higher temperatures,” Das added. However, with the rainfall, the temperature is expected to fall in the next two days by 2-3 degrees but it may rise again by 2-3 degrees by the end of the week.

“There will be a fall in the coming two days followed by a gradual rise in the temperature by 2-3 degrees,” the IMD regional director said.

On Tuesday, Surat recorded the highest maximum temperature of 30.7 degrees Celsius (though no departure from normal temperature) followed by Vadodara at 30.6 degrees Celsius (1 degree higher than the normal temperature), Rajkot 30.3 (2 degrees higher than normal), Ahmedabad 29.6 degree (1.7 degree higher than normal), Porbandar 29.5, Bhuj 29.3, Naliya and Deesa 28.6 degree Celsius.

Similarly, the minimum temperature was the lowest at Naliya at 12.6 degrees Celsius (3.1 degrees higher than normal), Amreli 13.2, Deesa 13.6 (3.3 degrees higher), Ahmedabad 14.8 (2.6 degrees higher), Gandhinagar 14 (2.1 degrees higher) and Bhuj 15.7 degree Celsius (4.6 degrees higher than the normal temperature), the weather department data revealed.