Jaipur, Sep 5 (IANS): Amid heavy rains lashing the desert state, the Met department on Thursday issued an ‘orange alert’ in places like Jaipur, Dausa, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli, Nagaur, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Jhunjhunu and Sikar.

The department has warned people to take shelter in safe places and not under trees and wait for the weather to turn normal before venturing out.

As per officials, Rajasthan registered 55 per cent higher rainfall than normal this season.

Rajasthan registered 607.5 mm of rainfall this year against the usual 391.6 mm which makes it 55 per cent higher than normal.

Eastern Rajasthan recorded 41 per cent higher rain than normal, while the western part of the state, which also accommodates parts of Thar desert, registered 81 per cent higher rainfall.

This season, western Rajasthan registered 462.3mm rainfall against the usual 255.9mm which makes it higher than 81 per cent of normal monsoon, said officials.

Surprisingly, Dausa registered 123 per cent higher rainfall this season by registering 1191.2 mm against 535.1 mm of rain usually.

Similarly, at 417.8 mm, Jaisalmer registered 160 per cent higher rainfall against 160.4 mm of rain usually.

Sawai Madhopur registered 98 per cent higher rainfall than normal by recording 1066.7 mm of rain against the normal 539.5 mm.

Tonk registered 90 per cent higher rainfall than normal.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan officials confirmed that traffic operations on rail and road routes were affected due to heavy rains in the last two days.

The Met department said that heavy rains would lash the state till September 7 and slow down after that.

Radheshyam Sharma, Director of Meteorological Centre Jaipur, said that the low pressure system that has currently formed over Madhya Pradesh has now weakened and turned into a cyclonic circulation. It is currently active over south-western Rajasthan, he said.

Another new low pressure area is likely to form soon in the Bay of Bengal.

Due to the effect of this system, there is a possibility of heavy to very heavy rains in Jodhpur, Udaipur, Kota and Ajmer divisions.

Also there is the possibility of moderate and sometimes heavy rains in some parts of Jaipur, Bharatpur and Bikaner divisions.

He said that monsoon is likely to remain active in the eastern part of Rajasthan for the next four to five days and from September 8 rainfall would decrease and the weather would start becoming dry.

Meanwhile, due to the heavy rain, the water level was continuously growing in rain-fed rivers and big dams of the state.

Around 5,600 cusecs of water has been released from two gates of Panchana Dam in Karauli, 1,260 cusecs from two gates of Kota Barrage, 8,133 cusecs from one gate of Kalisindh Dam in Jhalawad, 392 cusecs from one gate of Parvati Dam in Dholpur and 45,655 cusecs of water is being drained from eight gates of Mahi in Banswara.