The ash cloud from the Hayli Gubbi volcanic eruption in Ethiopia will leave the Indian landmass by Tuesday evening, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday.
The ash plume traveled across Yemen, Oman and the Arabian Sea on Monday evening and entered Gujarat and Rajasthan. Around midnight, it came near Delhi and through Tuesday it moved across and east and northeast India.
“We are expecting that the cloud will clear up from the Indian region by Wednesday. These are ash particles mainly which are moving at a height of 8km to 15km. So the main impact is on aviation and aircraft operations over Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. We have been issuing those warnings. There is no impact on the surface or the weather. There is no concern of exposure either because at that height, the wind speed is around 100kmph to 150kmph so the particles move away. There is hardly any time to settle down. But if a western disturbance were impacting us and there was rain, these particles would have settled,” explained M Mohapatra, director general, IMD.
“The ash cloud is moving towards China through east and northeast India,” he added.
IMD is not expecting a western disturbance to impact Northwest India (NW) India over the next few days, but heavy and widespread rain is expected over south India, IMD has warned.
There is a well-marked low-pressure area over Malaysia and adjoining Strait of Malacca which intensified into depression over strait of Malacca. There is also a low pressure area over southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining areas of South Sri Lanka and Equatorial Indian Ocean.
According to IMD forecasts, heavy rainfall is likely over Tamil Nadu till November 30; over Kerala and Mahe on November 26; coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam and Rayalaseema between November 29 and December 1; Andaman & Nicobar Islands till November 29 with heavy rainfall over Tamil Nadu during November 28 to 30.
“We can expect widespread rain over parts of peninsular India,” Mohapatra said.
The minimum temperatures are in the range of less than 6°C at many places over Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-GilgitBaltistan-Muzaffarabad, few places over Himachal Pradesh, isolated places over Uttarakhand and Punjab.
The temperature has been hovering around 7-10°C at many places over Haryana Chandigarh, Delhi, West Uttar Pradesh and north Rajasthan. The lowest minimum temperature of 6.3°C is reported at Hissar, Haryana.
