The all-India monsoon deficit fell below 10% of normal level for the first time this season, on the back of a remarkable rain rally since August 1, when the deficit had stood at 19% and the country was staring at a bad drought year.
The Met department said the monsoon deficit on Friday was 9% of the long period average, categorized as ‘below normal’ in the department’s monsoon nomenclature. Till now, the rainfall had been ‘deficient’ (less than 90% of normal).
As much as 64% of the country has now received normal or excess rain this season, while the rest have had deficient rainfall, which in this case means 20% below normal.
The latest dent came due to the season’s best week of rains (August 30-September 5), when the all-India average was 31% above normal. This week alone shaved off 2% from the overall shortfall.
With good rains in the past fortnight in northwest India —that includes the grain bowl states where shortfall was maximum — the deficit here has fallen to 13%. This is less than the shortfall in east and Northeast India, where it is 15%.
IMD also released data for August, which shows the country had 1% above normal rainfall during the month. By contrast, rainfall in July was 13% below normal.
The monsoon continues to remain active.
No comments:
Post a Comment