Nine states, one UT in red due to monsoon rainfall deficit, says IMD

As many as nine states and one UT from the area covered by Southwest Monsoon have received deficit rainfall with Kerala registering the maximum, minus 55 per cent less than the expected as on date, IMD data showed on Monday.

Due to absence of supportive system, the monsoon progress has been slower than expected apart from sending several areas worrying about shortfall in rainfall. India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the the northern limit of monsoon, as on Monday, passed through Deesa, Ratlam, Shivpuri, Rewa, Churk, pushing only a little ahead after a hiatus of four days.

In IMD parlance, rainfall that shows minus 20 to minus 59 per cent departure from normal, i.e. the long period average (LPA) for that region/state, is termed as 'deficit'. Similarly, normal rainfall is between minus 19 per cent to plus 19 per cent range of the LPA.

In descending order, as on date, Kerala received 260.7 mm rainfall as against 577.8 mm as per its long period average (minus 55 per cent), Gujarat received 48.3 mm against 90.1 mm (minus 46 per cent), Jharkhand received 89.3 mm rain against 160.2 mm (minus 44 per cent), Odisha received 118.1 mm rainfall as against 181.6 mm (minus 35 per cent), Maharashtra received 120.7 mm rainfall as against 179.7 mm (minus 33 per cent), and Bihar received 94.3 mm against 130.8 mm (minus 28 per cent).

Chhattisgarh registered 117.6 mm rains against 157.9 mm expected (minus 26 per cent), Karnataka received 137.7 mm rainfall as against 176.8 mm (minus 22 per cent), Mizoram was at 362.0 mm against 384.3 mm (minus 21 per cent) while the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu received 103.9 mm rainfall against 295.8 mm (minus 65 per cent).

From among the areas where SW Monsoon has not yet reached, and bereft of adequate pre-monsoon showers, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh too have registered minus 32, minus 53 and minus 51 per cent deficit rainfall, respectively, while UT Ladakh has shown minus 24 precipitation by way of snow.

Forecasting the rainfall for June month on May 31, IMD Director General, Meteorology, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra had said: "Normal or above normal rainfall is most likely over northern parts of south peninsula, some parts of east India and many parts of northwest & central India. Below normal rainfall is most likely over many parts of northeast India, some pockets of central & east India and southern parts of south peninsular India."

--IANS

niv/vd