The India Meteorological Department said on Sunday that the southwest monsoon season has ended with “below normal” rainfall. This is the second consecutive year when the monsoon was deficient. The southwest monsoon brings rain from June to September.
The country-wide rainfall deficit this time was around 9%, the Hindustan Times reported. The northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura received scanty rainfall, the IMD said. Three of them – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya – received deficit rain every week of the monsoon season from June to September.
“We have noticed that whenever there is good monsoon over Central India, the northeastern states do not get enough rain,” IMD meteorology Director General M Mohapatra said. “Out of 36 subdivisions, 26 have good rainfall distribution.”
“In the North East, there is no heavy dependence on agriculture, so we are not expecting any major impact on agriculture,” AK Sharma, an IMD agrometeorologist said. “[But] Jharkhand and Bihar will be moderately affected. Groundwater levels will of course be affected in the North East.”
Mohapatra told PTI that 95% of the Long Period Average rainfall for June was received, while the figure for July was 94% and for August 92%. However, in September, the country received just 76% of the Long Period Average rainfall. The measure is the mean rainfall during the four-month monsoon season over the last 50 years.
On Monday, the IMD issued a weather bulletin which said that the southwest monsoon has withdrawn from the remaining parts of Rajasthan, entire Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Uttar Pradesh, some parts of East Uttar Pradesh, West and East Madhya Pradesh, and several parts of Gujarat. However, Goa and Maharashtra are likely to receive rainfall in the first week of October, IMD said.
The department also predicted that the northeast monsoon season, which occurs from October to December, over the southern peninsula is likely to see normal rainfall as a whole. “There is a tendency for some southern states, especially Tamil Nadu, to receive above normal rainfall this year,” Mohapatra said.
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