Bengaluru/New Delhi: The intense surface warming in places like Bengaluru and other places across the country during this summer is facilitating deep convection in the atmosphere, thus resulting in hailstorms, weather experts say.

Bengaluru, which has been lately reeling under extreme day temperatures, witnessed heavy rains and hailstorms in several parts of the city on Friday, prompting increased chatter on social media platforms. People were found sharing pictures and videos of pea-sized cubes of ice splattering on roads and the public running for cover.

The hailstorms are basically severe thunderstorms resulting from deep convection. Pre-monsoon hailstorms are usually short-lived and mostly occur in the afternoon or evening due to intense surface heating.

“This is generally pre-monsoon time, so there will be hailstorms occasionally in certain areas like Bangalore, even Pune in later stage, mostly in April-may. The intense heating around this time facilitates deep convection to take place, It is common around this time," said Dr D.S. Pai, senior scientist, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

The hailstorm that lasted for about 20 minutes in the purported technology capital of the country comes days after the IMD said that southwest monsoons is likely to set over the southern state of Kerala on 6 June, after a delay of almost five days.

The IMD says that this pre-monsoon activity is likely to continue for a few days as conditions are becoming favourable for the advance of the monsoon over southern part of Andaman Sea and adjoining south-east Bay of Bengal during the next two days.

A trough persists from south-Interior Karnataka to Comorin area across Tamil Nadu. Troughs are areas where thunderstorms and showers can form. “It is common during summer months. There is intense heating of the land, which boosts thunderstorm activity. It would persist for next few days, especially in south interior Karnataka," said C.S. Patil, a scientist at IMD, Bangalore.

Delhi: Rain lashes parts of national capital; visuals from near the Election Commission of India office pic.twitter.com/NmFAPG7N4n — ANI (@ANI) May 17, 2019

While in north India, a western disturbance is causing scattered rainfall and thunderstorm over the plains of north-west India. There is another western disturbance building up in the Western Himalayan region, which is likely to make impact Sunday onwards, as per IMD forecast.

With monsoon likely to makes its onset around June 6, the agrarian community is hoping for normal rainfall this year, to ease the agrarian crisis, resulting from consecutive droughts in various parts of the country. Last year, the monsoon ended with a deficit of nearly 9.4 %.

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