India gets 14% lower rainfall in June-Sept monsoon season

India's rainfall was 14% lower than normal in the June-September monsoon season, provisional data posted on the website of Indian Metrological Department showed on Wednesday.

The weather office had forecast a 12% rain deficit in the four-month long season.

That makes this the first back-to-back drought for India in three decades, and only the fourth in more than a century. The scant rains have hit the yields of summer-sown crops, especially in the south of the country.

Monsoon rains have been below average levels due to El Nino, a weather pattern caused by Pacific Ocean warming that can lead to droughts in South Asia.

 

In some regions the rainfall deficit during the season was as high as 47%, resulting in shortages of drinking water.