The IMD has forecast rain, thunderstorms and strong winds across 18 states on Sunday, September 20, with heavy rain in southern India and heavy to very heavy rain in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Gangetic West Bengal.
A headline that lists 18 states can make it sound as if the whole country is about to be washed out. In practice, the useful information is in the gradations: heavy rain in one region, very heavy in another, and only thunderstorms or lightning in a third.
The right response depends on which of those you are in. In the south, heavy rain and gusts of 40 to 50 kmph call for travel planning. In Odisha or Bengal, very heavy rain calls for attention to waterlogging. In Delhi or Bihar, thunderstorms mean short, sharp storms rather than a full day of rain.
The safety advice is the same across all of them: stay clear of open fields, trees and electric poles, and treat lightning as the main hazard during thunderstorms.
The habit worth building is to read down to your own state and district level rather than stopping at the headline, since alerts are written for large areas and the danger is local.
Winds of up to 60 to 65 kmph are possible in vulnerable areas, according to a forecast summary.
Delhi-NCR is forecast to see rain and thunderstorms with winds of about 30 to 40 kmph, with a maximum temperature near 34 degrees Celsius and a minimum near 24 degrees Celsius.
Lucknow is expected to reach about 34 degrees Celsius with a minimum near 26 degrees, and rain in Uttar Pradesh may extend into September 21.
Patna is forecast to see a maximum of about 34 degrees Celsius and a minimum near 27 degrees Celsius, with widespread thunderstorms across Bihar.
Heavy rain in hilly areas may cause landslides and disrupt travel, and lightning and hail are possible in the hills.
Rain clouds during the monsoon in Goa (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0