“Today, if you noticed, it was very hot in Kathmandu throughout the day. Thunder cloud in the evening would indeed follow,” said weather expert Rajendra Shrestha. “The beauty of thunder cloud is it comes suddenly and goes off quickly. There would be more of such rains in the Valley as the monsoon season is still to last for one and half month.” [break]
Even less than an hour of rain in the Valley in the evening brought the traffic almost to a halt, causing inconvenience for commuters. The streets at Tripureshwor, Putalisadak, Anamnagar, Thamel, Kumaripati and Mangalbazar, among other areas, were offering spectacular view as they turned into good size water pool.
Similarly, weather expert Mani Ratna Shakya predicted that the weather in the Valley would remain pleasant in the days to come as he considered thunder rain to be one of the best part of the weather pattern. “The rain is due to the eastern winds. If it does not rain in the day, it often rains at night and vice versa. But overall, the rain we are receiving here is just pleasant and would be so in the days to come.”
Heavy rains expected in western region
Shakya said weather situation in the western and far-western part might again show some disturbances. According to Shakya, it might rain heavily in the western and far-western region of the country within two to three days. “A cloud burst or at least a heavy rain is expected in the western region. It would mainly affect the Tarai belt.”
It has not been long that the cloud burst wreaked havoc in 18 districts, including Darchula, Dadelhura and Doti in the region. The lack of preparedness to deal with natural calamities was heavily criticized as the persistent rainfall followed by flood and landslides rendered many people homeless and claimed dozens of lives.
Shrestha explained that the prediction deserves to be taken seriously as it not based on manual but computerized calculations. “The weather prediction process is almost same across the world. In developed countries they can predict weather of up to 7 days, while we are equipped to predict just for 3 days.”
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