Widespread rain in Gujarat as southwest monsoon covers entire state

Gujarat on Saturday received a widespread rainfall on the second consecutive day with the advancement of the southwest monsoon which now covered the entire state, the Met department said.

In its forecast, the Ahmedabad meteorological centre of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that light to moderate rain is very likely across the Gujarat region, Saurashtra-Kutch, and Daman, Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall in the north and south Gujarat and Saurashtra-Kutch in the next two days.

"The monsoon further advanced Saturday to cover the remaining parts of the north Arabian sea, Saurashtra, Gujarat and the entire Kutch regions, as well as some parts of Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh. With this, it covered the entire north Arabian sea and Gujarat state on Saturday. As it advanced, the monsoon brought widespread rainfall across Gujarat on Friday which continued on Saturday," the IMD said in an update.

In the last 24 hours ending at 6 am on Saturday, 171 out of Gujarat's total 251 tehsils received rainfall. "Gujarat has received 49.92 mm or 5.94 per cent of the average annual rainfall so far," the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said in an update.

During the last 24 hours, Anand tehsil in Anand district received the highest 183 mm rainfall, followed by Vadali in Sabarkantha district which received 150 mm rainfall, Khambhaliya in Devbhumi Dwarka 128 mm, and Choryasi in Surat 124 mm. Several parts of Surat, Navsari, Mehsana, Anand, Banaskantha, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and other districts received above 50 mm rainfall, the SEOC said.

Among the 152 tehsils that received rainfall between 6 am and 4 pm on Saturday, Anjar tehsil in Kutch district received 105 mm rainfall, Gandhidham 77 mm, Thangadh in Surendranagar 71 mm, and Junagadh 70 mm, it said.