Monsoon below normal for third straight month in August: IMD data

The countrywide monsoon saw the highest rain deficiency of the season in August -- ironically the month when a large part of Kerala was submerged and many other states received "excess" rainfall, as per the official IMD data.

In the third consecutive month of rainfall deficiency, August recorded 92 per cent of rainfall of the Long Period Average (LPA) after 95 per cent in June and 94 per cent in July, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) data showed.

The IMD officials blamed the low nationwide figures for monsoon rains largely on deficient rainfall in east and northeast India.

Officially, the Southwest Monsoon season runs from June to September. From September 15, it usually starts withdrawing from Rajasthan and ends gradually.

Incidentally, it was the month of August when Kerala saw an unprecedent rainfall activity submerging several parts of the state, resulting in a major crisis situation.

According to the IMD, Kerala received "large excess" rainfall while the meteorological subdivisions of coastal Karnataka, south interior Karnataka, Telangana, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir received "excess" rainfall.

On the other hand, Lakshadweep, east Madhya Pradesh, west Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, east Rajasthan, west Rajasthan, Punjab, and subdivision of Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi received "deficient" rainfall.

Overall, August received 241.4 mm of rainfall in comparison to the normal precipitation of 261.3 mm.

In its Long Range forecast for the rainfall during the second half (August September) of the Southwest Monsoon 2018, the IMD had predicted that August would get 96 per cent of rainfall with an error margin of plus or minus 9 per cent.

The overall monsoon deficiency, as of today, stands at minus 7 per cent. The highest deficiency (minus 24 per cent) was in east and northeast meteorological division of the IMD.

The south peninsula meteorological division received 2 per cent more rains than the normal, while the central India and northwest India recorded minus 3 and minus 2 per cent of deficit, respectively.

IMD Director General K J Ramesh said although the figures reflected a below normal rainfall, the overall rainfall in the country has been good.

He attributed the low figures to deficient rainfall in east and northeast India.

"Last year, the food grains yield saw a record production, while this year, the sowing was 0.28 per cent higher than the last year," Ramesh said.