Monsoon to be normal, insists IMD

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today maintained there would be a normal monsoon in the country this year.

A B Mazumdar, Deputy Director General of Meteorology (Weather Forecasting), IMD, Pune, said: “We maintain what we had said earlier —that monsoon will be normal this year. There has been a delay in its onset, but July being the rainiest month, we expect that almost 93 per cent of rainfall will be covered in this month. It is difficult to pinpoint which region will have minimum and maximum rain, but the north-western region may have less of rainfall this time around,” he told Business Standard.

In March this year, the IMD had predicted there would be normal rains across the country in the June-September season.

The projections seemed to have gone wrong due to delayed or no rains in many parts of the country.

According to IMD, Pune, Delhi and neighbouring areas will have an average to above average rainfall in the next 48 hours, while Gujarat will experience heavy to very heavy rains in some parts. Coastal regions of Maharashtra, like Konkan, and Goa, too, will have heavy rainfall in the coming two to three days.

As late as till the end of June this year, many parts of the country were devoid of rain, sowing was delayed and the monsoon did not progress as expected.

A report published by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which said that El Nino would have an adverse impact on rainfall in India, had also spread concern.