After a brief hiatus, rain likely to return to Marathwada

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that the Marathwada region is likely to witness rainfall in the next few days.
Barring Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Jalna districts, the remaining six districts, namely Nanded, Hingoli, Parbhani, Latur, Dharashiv and Beed, have received an ‘yellow alert' from the met department. These six districts may witness light to moderate rainfall amid lightning and thunderstorms at isolated places.Both Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Jalna districts are expected to have light rain for the next few days.
Marathwada, comprising eight districts, has received 162mm of rainfall in Sept till Saturday morning, which accounts for 139% of expectation. Marathwada, since June 1, has received 736mm of showers, accounting for 108% of expected showers.
Farmers' leader Jayaji Suryawanshi said light to moderate showers are needed for proper growth of Kharif crops. "There has been a certain rise in the temperature level for the last few days which has reduced moisture in the soil. Rainfall is needed to remove stress observed in crops," he said.
Meanwhile, a total of 920 different major, medium and minor irrigation projects from Marathwada have been holding 71% live storage as of Saturday more than double when compared to 32% storage observed during the same period last year.
Among key projects, the Jayakwadi irrigation project from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has been over 99% live storage with both inflows and outflows taking place at the speed of 650 Cusec by Monday evening, authorities said.