Over 26% of India affected by drought conditions, says US weather body

In its Global Climate Report for October, NCEI said that almost all states have parts that have been affected by drought, except Rajasthan and Punjab

A United States (US) weather agency said that drought affected 26.3 per cent of India in October, even as the month turned out to be the warmest on record globally, according to a report in The Hindu Businessline (BL).

In its Global Climate Report for October, the National Centres for Environmental Information (NCEI) stated that almost all states have parts that have been affected by drought, except Rajasthan and Punjab. NCEI is a unit of the US weather agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Until September, drought affected 21.6 per cent of the country, but the situation deteriorated in October as drought conditions were confirmed in areas covering about 26.3 per cent of the country.

Since 1901, post-monsoon rainfall in October was the sixth-lowest. From October 1, data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed that 61 per cent of the 712 districts saw deficient, large deficient or no post-monsoon rainfall.

The country has witnessed apathetic weather conditions since June this year. June experienced below-normal rainfall, whereas July saw excess precipitation. August saw its driest spell since 1901. However, September received normal rainfall. October saw lower-than-normal precipitation.

According to the NCEI, the current El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) sea surface temperature (SST) patterns led to irregular weather patterns across eastern Africa and Central and South America. Most of India was dry, but Indochina and much of China were wet, different from the composite.

El Niño is a weather pattern that leads to the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The Indian Ocean Dipole refers to the difference in sea surface temperature between two areas – a western pole in the Arabian Sea (western Indian Ocean) and an eastern pole in the eastern Indian Ocean south of Indonesia.

Bloomberg reported that this October was the warmest on record, and 2023 is “virtually certain” to be the hottest year ever recorded. The average global temperature for October was 0.4C above the previous record for the month, set in 2019, 0.85C warmer than the 1991 to 2020 average, according to the European Union-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service. This year is so far 1.43C warmer than the pre-industrial average.