The average cumulative rainfall in the State from June 1 to September 30 this year has registered a surplus of 9.9 per cent due to incessant rain in September.
While the cumulative rainfall in June and July was deficient by 31.5 per cent and 9.0 per cent, respectively. However, August and September witnessed surplus rainfall of 24.5 per cent and 53.7 per cent respectively, official sources said.
During the current year, advance of the South-West Monsoon was delayed. The monsoon reached the State on June 21 against its normal arrival time of June second week. While it covered the entire Odisha June 22, rainfall remained quite inadequate in most parts of the State during the last week of June and last part of July.
But the State received good rainfall in August and September. Due to heavy rainfall, flood and severe water logging situations were experienced in many southern and western districts in three spells i.e. from July 27 to August 5, August 6 to August 11 and August 12 to August 16. A moderate flood was experienced in the Mahanadi in the third spell. Balangir town received a record amount of 555 mm rainfall in a single day on August 13.
The district-wise cumulative rainfall data indicates that Malkangiri district received the highest rainfall of 1888.6 mm (31.9 per cent surplus) and Gajapati district received the lowest rainfall of 945.8 mm (2.6 per cent surplus).
As many as 10 districts namely Koraput, Kalahandi, Jharsuguda, Puri, Malkangiri, Balangir, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Subarnapur and Cuttack received surplus rainfall of more than 19 per cent.
A total of 19 districts which received normal rainfall (Plus 19 per cent to minus 19 per cent) are Bargarh, Khordha, Nayagarh, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Jagatsinghpur, Gajapati, Jajpur, Sambalpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal, Nuapada, Boudh, Baleswar, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj and Angul.
Rainfall in Deogarh district remained deficit between 19 per cent and 39 per cent during the June 1-September 30 period.
The State experienced a total 50.2 rainy days between June and September against the normal average of 52.4 rainy days. There were 7.4 rainy days in June, 13.7 rainy days in July, 14.6 rainy days in August and 14.5 rainy days in September.
Data showed that 103 blocks have received surplus rainfall ( more than 19 per cent), 169 blocks received normal rainfall (+ 19 per cent to – 19 per cent), 40 blocks received deficit rainfall (-19 per cent to -39 per cent) and two blocks received severe deficit rainfall (-39 per cent to -59 per cent) cumulatively. The two blocks which experienced severe deficit rainfall are Champua (-41.6 per cent ) and Jhumpura (-43.9 per cent) in Keonjhar district.