Releasing the report on southwest monsoon 2018, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday that the country has received 91 per cent rainfall this year. As per data, 95 per cent rainfall received in June, 94 per cent in July, 92 per cent in August, and 76 per cent in September.
“Out of the total 36 meteorological subdivisions, 23 subdivisions constituting 68 per cent of the total area of the country received normal season rainfall, one subdivision received excess rainfall (one per cent of the total area), and 12 subdivisions (31 per cent of the total area) received deficient season rainfall. Out of the 12 deficient subdivisions, 5 subdivisions were from East & Northeast India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam & Meghalaya, Gangetic west Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand), 3 subdivisions each were from the Central India (Saurashtra & Kutch, Gujarat region and Marathwada) and South Peninsula (Rayalaseema, North Interior Karnataka and Lakshadweep) and one subdivision (West Rajasthan) from Northwest India,” the IMD said.
During the season, 10 monsoon low pressure systems (one cyclone, one deep depression, one depressions, two well marked low pressure areas and two low pressure areas) formed against an average of six depressions and eight low pressure areas.
The IMD claimed that forecast for monsoon onset over Kerala for this year was very accurate, as both the forecasted and realised date of onset of monsoon over Kerala was May 29.
The season witnessed a very large number of ‘High Impact weather events, of which ‘floods’ remained to be the most frequent and widespread phenomenon.
“During the 2018 southwest monsoon season, though the warming trends in the sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over equatorial Pacific indicated evolving El Nino, SSTs remained below the El Nino threshold value. Hence, warm ENSO neutral conditions prevailed over the equatorial Pacific. The atmospheric conditions were also indicating neutral ENSO conditions,” it said.