NEW DELHI, Sept 30:
India received 88 per cent rainfall during monsoon this year, 12 per cent less than the normal, as predicted by the MeT department.
A third of its territory witnessed deficient precipitation during the wet season.
“The country received 77.8-cm rainfall as compared to the normal rainfall of 89-cm. It is 12 per cent less than the normal amount of rainfall,” said Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General, Laxman Singh Rathore.
The official period for the Southwest Monsoon season in India is between June 1 and September 30.
According to IMD, monsoon is fast winding up and its withdrawal line passes through Jammu, Una, Bareilly, Kanpur, Nowgong, Ujjain, Vadodara and Porbandar. It is also active over Kerala, IMD said.
Private forecasting agency Skymet said that only one sub- division, South Interior Karnataka, received excess rainfall, of 21 per cent, while about 30 per cent of the country received deficient rainfall.
The overall monsoon deficit in the country was at -12 per cent this year, as per IMD data. IMD had projected a “below normal” monsoon this year.
The onset of monsoon was weak with June seeing a high rainfall deficit of -43 per cent.
However, conditions improved in July and August on the back of good spells of rain in their last two weeks. The good rainfall in July, August and September helped limit the overall deficit to -12 per cent.
Northwest division, which includes eastern and western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana saw a rain deficit of -21 per cent, the highest in the country, while the shortfall for the southern peninsula was -7 per cent.
Good rainfall in the last three months kept the overall deficit at -9 per cent in Central India while eastern and Northeast India recorded a deficit of -12 per cent.
According to IMD, overall, Sept. 4 recorded the highest rainfall for a single day while June 1, the date for the official onset of the monsoon in the country, recorded the least rainfall for one day. (PTI)
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