Bhubaneswar: Predicting the onset of monsoon is undoubtedly an affair of meteorological department in the country, but Lord Jagannath temple in Uttar Pradesh is believed to be the forecaster of rainfall during monsoon season since years even ages before invention of technologies.

Believe it or not, the water droplets accumulated on the ceiling of the centuries old shrine accurately forecast about the scanty, average or heavy monsoon.

The size of water droplets of the pilgrimage, which is widely known as 'Rain Temple', situated at Bhitargaon Behata in Ghatampur area of Kanpur district, indicates the amount of rainfall.

The devotees mostly the farmers are the regular visitors to the temple to offer prayers for good monsoon. They see water droplets in the middle stones of the ceiling to get an idea about the monsoon rain. If the size of the water droplets will be big, the devotees could understand that there will be good rainfall and if it will be small, then there may be drought in store.

This has been the belief system for the locals since centuries. While they get accurate forecast about monsoon from the water droplets of the temple, the rest of the people in India completely depend on the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which runs under Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Besides, the architecture of the temple is believed to have been built during the era of Indian emperor Ashoka. The shrine also resembles the structures of Mughal period.