After three days, rain abates across Gujarat

Ahmedabad: After three days of heavy rainfall and thunderstorms that lashed Gujarat, skies cleared in most parts of the state on Thursday.

The wet spell, which was witnessed in the peak summer month of May when temperatures cross 40 degrees celsius, was accompanied by high-velocity winds that left 21 people dead and a trail of destruction.

Compared to Wednesday, when 191 out of the 253 talukas received rainfall, only 38 talukas recorded precipitation. Of these just four got more than 25 mm of rain. These include Tapi (55mm), Talala (47) in Junagadh, Kaprada (34mm) in Valsad and Gir Somnath (30). Twenty four talukas got less than 10mm rainfall, according to the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) data.

On Wednesday, Khambhat which was lashed by 102mm, saw considerable abatement in precipitation with just 22mm on Thursday.

"Heavy rainfall is very likely at isolated places Surat, Navsari, Valsad and Daman, Dadra Nagar Haveli on Friday," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin stated.

The bulletin stated that moderate thunderstorm with lightning and surface wind 50- 60 kmph accompanied with moderate rain at isolated places in all the districts of South Gujarat region namely Vadodara, Chhota Udepur, Narmada, Bharuch, Surat, Dang, Navsari, Valsad and Tapi; in the districts of North Gujarat region namely Sabarkantha, Aravalli, Panchmahal, Dahod and Mahisagar; in the districts of Saurashtra namely Rajkot, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Dwarka, Gir Somnath, Botad and in Diu.

Some places Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Kheda, Ahmedabad, Anand, Surendranagar, Morbi and Kutch may get light to moderate rainfall on Saturday.

The inclement weather has led to adverse impact on several crops including mango, sesame and bajra with fields getting inundated in several districts.