Update July 28, 2013 - No respite from rains till July end?

The monsoon trough off the west coast of India, is expected to get stronger under the influence of an Upper Air Circulation centered around Rajasthan over Monday 29 and Tuesday 30, bringing fresh rains to the northern parts of the west coast of India, including Goa, till July end.

Winds blowing from west at 30-40 kph, are expected to dump around 30-40 mm of rain per 24 hrs in most parts of Goa.

So expect 4-5 intense but short periods of rain, with long gaps in between! What we call as the 'Almyacho cho Paus'?

As on July 28, four rain stations in Goa - Valpoi, Sanguem, Sankhali and Ponda - have already recorded more than 100 inches of rain. Pernem is very close with 98.57 in. But the surprise is Margao with 93.13 in already! Nearly 16% more than the 70 in it normally receives by July end.

Our July end Analysis is sure to reveal major surprises!

Will Margao touch 100 in by July 31? Looks difficult. But who can say, if the current spell continue?

Update July 27, 2013 - Dams & Reservoirs position in Goa, Good news!

The five reservoirs in Goa have all filled up earlier than usual, thanks to the abundance of rains in Goa in July.

The water level in the five Dams is as follows:

Sr        Dam                    Capacity mcm        Full Reservoir Level     Level as on 26/07/13
                                     (million  cubic meters)        (FRL) Meters                   Meters

1.    SELAULIM                 234.36                                41.15                         42.42

2.    ANJUNEM                   44.83                                93.20                          92.44

3.    CHAPOLI                     11.20                                38.75                         38.24

4.   AMTHANE                     5.97                                 50.25                         50.25

5.   PANCHWADI                4.47                                 26.12                         26.20

While Chapoli usually fills up by August, the heavy rains of July has ensured its early filling up.

Hopefully even the areas which chronically experience water shortage in Goa, and there aren't many of them, will have water supply in plenty this year!

Selaulim Dam, Sanguem (File Picture)

Anjunem Dam, Keri Sattari (File Picture)

Chapoli Dam, Canacona (File Picture)

Update July 24 - Perpetually wet!

July 24 was one of the days when rains never seemed to stop!

The day was highly overcast, intense and continuous spells throughout the day, with few breaks in between. Accompanied by strong gusts of wind. Overwhelming feeling was one one of Goa having a bit too much rain!

The day temperature came down to 26C and humidity was of course nearly 100%.

No surprise if tomorrows newspapers are dominated by photographs of flooded roads and fallen trees!

Panaji recorded 64 mm of rain in 10 hr period from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm as per IMD AWS website, bringing its total to nearly 75 inches. Valpoi (123 in.), Sanguem (106 in.) have already crossed 100 inches of rain. Ponda (95 in.), Pernem (92 in.) are not far behind. Surprisingly Margao had received 84 inches of rain till 8:30 am on July 24, way ahead of Panaji.

Rains are expected to ease of only after July 27, as indicated in the GFS model based Meteogram for Goa from COLA/IGES:

Coming days will tell if this is indeed true!

Update July 23, 2013 - Valpoi rains cross 3000 mm mark!

Monday July 22 saw heavily overcast skies but little rain till 5.30 pm.

The bulk of the rains came down heavily in the 7 hour period from 5:30 pm to 00:30 am. Panaji recorded nearly 45 mm of rain in the period.

During the 24 hours ending 8:30 am July 23, Panaji recorded 55.4 mm, Margao 69.3 mm and Valpoi 136.6 mm (5.37 in)! This was pretty much as per prediction.

With today's rains Valpoi reached another milestone of 3000 mm!

The rains are expected to be at the same level for two more days at least, with intense spells late in the afternoon and night. Average of 40 - 60 mm per day is expected for most of Goa with higher figures for Valpoi and Sanguem. Sunshine is going to be scarce!

For the record, Konkan and Goa sub division of the India Meteorological Department has recorded the highest rainfall so far, 51% in excess!

Update July 21, 2013 - Battered by Rain

In the 96 hrs period ending 8.30 am Sunday July 21, 2013, Goa was battered with continuous rains in almost all parts of the state.

Average 96 hrs Rainfall till 8.30 am July 21, 2013

During the last 4 days Panaji and Margao received nearly 60 mm (2.36 in) rain daily while Valpoi at the base of the western ghats received 112 mm (4.40 in) rain daily.

However Sunday July 21 has seen rains easing off. While the skies have remained heavily overcast, rainfall recorded in most parts of the state till 5.30 pm has been less than 10 mm from 8.30 am onwards. Rains have come in short intense bursts and are likely to continue rest of the evening.

However rest of the week, particularly 1st half, promises to be equally wet for Goa with rains in the region of 30 - 60 mm predicted per day, under the influence of a lowoff the coast of Orissa.

Goa (circled in red) along with rest of west coast of India is forecast to receive more than 200 mm rains during the period from July 21 to 28, 2013 as per this prediction by NCEP.

Rains have brought the temperatures below normal with Day temperature around 27C and night temperature around 23C. Humidity however if around 98%.

Weather in Goa - Will it Rain? Your Guide to online resources Part I

You may be having various reasons to want to know if rains are imminent in Goa. 

1. You may be a visitor planning your trip to Goa and looking forward to lots of sunshine on the beach! 

2. You may be a resident Goan planning an outdoor function and you don't want your guests to get wet!

3. You may be a businessman who doesn't want the rain to interfere in his planned activity, or,

4. You may be one those like me, who look forward to the rains not for any business gains but just because you believe that Goa is best during rains!

As Goa receives almost all its annual rains of nearly 3000 mm average in just four months of monsoon, you will have to seek advice from the weatherman for bright and sunny days, between June and September!

But fortunately help is at hand, even for those who don't care about or ahem, let's say who are blissfully ignorant of all the weatherman's mumbo jumbo!

So, in this post and the next post we will try to see just how you may be able to firm up your plans for Goa with the rains or without the rains!

In Part I, we will look at the Weather websites and Apps which give you ready-made information.

In Part II, we will look at more detailed online resources from India Meteorological Department, EUMETSAT, COLA specially dedicated to the monsoon.

First up though -:

Weather Apps and Websites:

There are n number of good weather apps for your desktop or your mobile on all the platforms which are easy to install and could give you fairly good information on current weather in Goa or predictions for the coming 7 days or even 10 days. Many have links to satellite imagery to satisfy your curiosity for visual proof of clouds or lack of them.

My favourite websites for weather are Accuweather and Weather Underground .

When you type Goa India or Panaji Goa India in the City search field and select it, you are presented with all the information you will ever need in a new window. Though Goa is a state and Panaji is its capital city, the data available on the web and shown as Goa weather, is for Panaji City. Both the websites show forecast for next few days besides satellite views. Unfortunately Radar images are not available for Goa because - there is no Doppler Radar in Goa for meteorological use!

I prefer the Accuweather website though because it gives daily, hourly - separately for morning, afternoon, evening and night - weekend, extended and monthly weather. Besides weather for nearby places, warnings and historical weather data is also available. The forecast section has allIndia forecast shown graphically and covers quite a number of things.

The Accuweather App sits on the right sidebar of my blog, showing the current weather conditions for Goa. Try clicking on the various buttons on the app and it will take you to Accuweather website!

Apps like Accuweather, Weather.com, Weather Live are available for all types of mobiles and smart phones and they pretty much do the same things!

In Part II we will look at the monsson related resources on the website of India Meteorological Department and some more!

Valpoi Rainfall reaches the Century Mark!

Valpoi will reach the milestone of 100 inches of rainfall today July 18, within 48 days of the start of the monsoon season!

Rains in Goa has seen increased activity from Tuesday evening, with most places receiving 30-60 mm in the 24 hrs ending Thursday July 18, 8.30 am, except Valpoi (97.6 mm) and Ponda (90.4 mm). This brought Vapoi's total seasonal rain so far to 99.28 inches (2521.8 mm) just short of the century mark, which is sure to be surpassed today!

With Goa expected to receive 30-60 mm daily average rain till Saturday, and then tapering on Sunday, sunshine may be in rare supply! But this is normal for Goa in July. Five - six intense downpours and light drizzle, with more rains in the interior of Goa.

Rain forecast till July 20

Very interesting data for High Rainfall areas of India from June 1 to July 13, 2013 prepared by Pradeep John is available at the website of the blog vagaries of weather

According to data the top three places with highest rainfall in India till July 13, 2013 are:
1. Talacavery (Karnataka) - 3600 mm
2. Agumbe (Karnataka) - 3451 mm
3. Surabhi (Karnataka) - 3431 mm

Cherrapunji (Meghalaya) with 2663 mm was at the 17th place, mainly because NE India has received deficient rain so far!

Valpoi finds a mention on this venerated list at 55th spot, so take a look. Many more familiar place names from neighbouring states in the list too!

Monsoon Magic in Goa - Fun with numbers!

Just 45 days into the season and the Monsoon 2013 season is on way to break all records in Goa!

The season started on June 1, and the monsoon arrived in Goa with a bang on June 3, earlier than normal. Since then sunshine has been in rare supply!

There are 11 rainfall measuring centers maintained by India Meteorological Department, Goa (IMD, Goa) and what is normally taken as the rainfall for Goa is the reading of just one of these ie of the capital city of Panaji.

The magic figure everyone waits for is 100 inches of rainfall, Valpoi is already over 90 inches and Panaji nearing 60! Still two and half months to go!

The rain recorded in the first 15 days of July at 5 centres Valpoi, Sanguem, Ponda, Mapusa and Panaji, surpassed the rains received for the full month of June! And the other centres are not too far behind!
 

So by September 30, 2013:
1. Will Valpoi cross 250 inches?
2. Will Panaji and thus for the record 'Goa' reach 150 inches?
3. Will Ponda break into top three?
4. And will Margao finish above Panaji?

Watch this space!!