By IANS
Lucknow : A dry spell continued over large parts of Uttar Pradesh Saturday with people and especially farmers waiting for monsoon showers in many places even as the weatherman saw little chance of rains soon.
The weather remained hot and humid with an overcast sky and the maximum temperature ranged between 35 degrees Celsius and 38 degrees Celsius in most parts of the state.
The met office here predicted similar weather conditions over the next few days, with the possibility of thundershowers in some isolated pockets.
"Only after a couple of days is there a possibility of full-fledged monsoon rains," said state met director K.P. Kulshreshtha.
"While Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are reeling under heavy downpour and even floods, monsoon has generally been dry in Uttar Pradesh this year so far," he said.
According to the monsoon status report prepared by the state met department for June, the average rainfall in every district has been 3 mm below normal.
As against the normal rainfall of 110.2 mm, every district on an average received 106.7 mm of rain between June 1 and July 4.
However, per district average rainfall in western Uttar Pradesh has been 24 percent above normal even as the rainfall in the eastern part of the state was 20 percent below normal during the period.
Kulshreshtha said: "A system developing over the north of the Bay of Bengal can bring good rain to Uttar Pradesh. If the low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal moves westward, it will bring rain to the state and beyond. But if it turns south like the earlier weather systems this year, then the state will have to wait for another system to develop."