Tag: Monsoon

Flood Alert.

Monsoon should have withdrawn normally last week after our Anantha Chaturdasi.

My regular readers will remember my writing two years ago about our local river being in spate. You can re-read it here.. Due to my current health issues, I have not ventured out to see the river as I normally do every year but, have been receiving news about it being in spate from others.

Yesterday’s local newspapers came out with flood alerts in all the rivers running through Pune.

Today, I have been receiving videos of some parts of the city under flood water and here is one of them.


I will keep my readers posted of further developments.

Anantha Chaturdashi.

Today is Anantha Chaturdashi. Like every year, the sun has come out of the clouds to mark the end of the monsoon and it is lovely to see bright sunlight outside.  I can hear the drum beats of processions taking Ganesha for immersion.  Such processions will go on till late tonight as many communities will be going to various immersion points in the city.

Today marks the end of our festival Ganesh Chaturthi.

From tomorrow, rivers which have been in spate due to the rains will revert to normal flows and the monsoon’s rough seas will also calm down enabling sea fishing to recommence.

Our ancients were closer to nature and its inevitable time tables than we are today!  They saw these phenomena and evolved our festivals around such days of seasonal significance, like harvest festivals, onset of warm weather after the winters, religious festivals and days of fasting during idle agricultural times, etc.

I am always in awe whenever these special days arrive and I share the significance with youngsters.

Rains.


I was woken up from my siesta by the sound of thunder, rain and heavenly petrichor.

As usual, and setting at rest doubts for this year, our monsoon has arrived on time. The image above is rain in our garden just five minutes ago. As I write this, there is thunder rolling over head and rain falling in torrents.

I shall now listen to some Malhar. My readers will remember my post last year on the same date my post on the subject.

The pluviophile in me is delighted.

The Weather.

For the first time since I started to live in Pune thirty two years ago, the summer season has forced me to instal an air conditioner in our drawing room.

Two factors are cited the foremost being global warming / climate change and the deforestation on the mountains that surround our city. The cool breeze that used to come down from there, has disappeared and now we are paying the price for that folly.  We get hot winds instead.

The past two weeks have been particularly bad as apart from the heat, in the high thirties low forties during the day, humidity has been high for our plateau climate and that has made it more uncomfortable for us. Dry heat is less debilitating whereas the humidity saps one of one’s energy.

As I write this, it has been over cast and the high has been 38 deg C and forecast to be 25 deg C during the night. Humidity at 51% is very high for us.

As my readers know that I am a Pluviophile and I am impatient for some heavy downpours. Our monsoon season that normally starts by early June seems an eternity off.

How is the climate where you live?

Rains.

Readers of this blog know that I am a pluviophile and love our monsoon season particularly. I have been very lucky in the month of May this year as we had the so called pre-monsoon showers regularly, unlike any other May that I have seen over the past thirty odd years that I have lived here.

June has not been an exception so far as we have been having rains every afternoon since the beginning of it this year. As I write this, it is pouring cats and dogs at 4.00 pm.

My son and I were discussing this phenomenon this morning as we were having our tea in our garden and I recollected a cartoon that our inimitable R K Laxman had created many decades ago. I had to go to Uncle Google and search but, I am glad that I succeeded.

I can’t get enough of that. Can you relate to it and your local weathermen?

Out For A Drive.

Local news informed me that our local river Mula Mutha was in spate and so I decided to go and see it as I do every year during the monsoon.

I left my home for the first time in 161 days yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the drive not only to the bridge over the river but also upto Yerwada, a suburb about three Kms away and back home. I was surprised to see just about 30% traffic than what I had got used to before the lockdown.

A still photograph and a short movie of the river taken from the bridge with the traffic noise as background for the latter.