India will receive "below normal" rainfall in June, the India Meteorological Department has said, revising its prediction downward.
The weather agency predicted that the rainfall during the month across the country was likely to be less than 92% of the Long Period Average.
The Long Period Average rainfall is the mean rainfall during the four-month monsoon season over the last 50 years. The mean rainfall figure for June from 1971 to 2020 was 16.69 centimetres, the weather agency said.
On May 27, the India Meteorological Department had predicted above-normal rainfall during the monsoon as a whole, and normal rainfall in June.
However, on Monday, the agency predicted that rainfall in June was likely to be below normal in the central and northwestern parts of the country and some parts of northeastern India.
M Rajeevan, former secretary in the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, however, told The Indian Express that as June was the month of the onset of the monsoon, the rainfall deficit was not much of a concern.
June accounts for about 15% of the country’s rainfall during the southwest monsoon, while July and August account for about 35% each.
If the monsoon had not been delayed this year, it would have covered West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh by now. However, the northern limit of the monsoon currently passes along the districts of Navsari, Jalgaon, Amravati, Chandrapur, Bijapur, Sukma, Malkangiri, Vizianagaram and Islampur, according to The Indian Express.
The delay in the monsoon is contributing to hot conditions in parts of northern India.
On Tuesday, parts of north India recorded the warmest nights of the season, with higher-than-normal minimum temperatures being recorded in many places in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
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