Weather: Amid fresh rains, IMD says monsoon season “ends” with 8% higher rainfall!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Even as some states continue to receive rains, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the four-month monsoon season came to “an end” on Tuesday with the country recording eight percent more than normal rainfall.
IMD’s Director-General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said India saw a “very successful” monsoon season, although it was marked by many disasters, including cloudbursts, landslides, and mudslides, the media reported.
Central India recorded 1125.3 mm of rainfall, 15.1 percent higher than the normal of 978 mm, while the southern peninsula gauged 9.9 percent more rainfall than the normal of 716.2 mm.
Overall, India recorded 937.2 mm of rainfall against the normal of 868.6 mm in the entire four-month monsoon season, a surplus of 8 percent.
East and northeast India recorded 1089.9 mm of rainfall, 20 percent below the normal of 1367.3 mm. Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Meghalaya saw deficient rainfall in three of the four monsoon months, Mohapatra said.
“Rainfall over east and northeast India this monsoon season was the second lowest since 1901. The lowest rainfall (1065.7 mm) in the monsoon season in the region was recorded in 2013,” he told an online press conference.
“Rainfall over east and northeast India has been deficient in many years in recent times. There is a trend (which shows) that rainfall over this region is decreasing since 2020. Studies also show that rainfall over east and northeast India has decreased in the last 20 years,” he said.
Northwest India received 747.9 mm, 27.3 percent more than the normal of 587.6 mm. This was the highest since 2001 and the sixth highest since 1901.
All districts in northwest India recorded above-normal rainfall in June, August and September, he said.
