Northeast monsoon below normal, triggers drought fear across south India

Unlike the rest of the country, which receives rain in the southwest monsoon season between June and September, the northeast monsoon is crucial for farming and water security in the south

On January 16, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) released a ‘Statement on Climate in India during 2018’. Among other high impact weather events in 2018, the met department pointed out in it that rainfall during the northeast monsoon, between October and December, over the country had been “substantially below normal” – only 56% of the long-term average. And this, it said, was the sixth lowest since 1901.

The statement went on to note that seasonal rainfall over the southern peninsula, which includes five meteorological subdivisions (coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, south interior Karnataka and Kerala), had