Decks are cleared for the winter to set in Uttarakhand as the Meteorological Centre has finally declared withdrawal of monsoon from the State on Saturday.
The mercury would start dipping in a few days, heralding the eagerly- awaited winter, the weatherman said.
Uttarakhand has received normal rainfall this rainy season on the 10 per cent negative side. The Met officials said that departure -19 per cent to +19 per cent is deemed normal while departure -20 per cent to -59 per cent is called deficient. Things were better this year than the previous year.
There is also possibility of good production in agriculture and horticulture sectors following good monsoon this year, said Met director Bikram Singh, adding that the monsoon had not caused major devastation in any part of the state save for two or three incidents this year.
He said that the southwest monsoon has further withdrawn from remaining parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, most parts of Uttarakhand, some parts of West Uttar Pradesh, East Rajasthan and some more parts of West Rajasthan. The withdrawal line of southwest monsoon passes through Dharchula, Aligarh, Jaipur and Barmer, he said.
last year, Uttarakhand had received deficient rainfall. The total rainfall in Uttarakhand during monsoon session was 28 per cent below normal from June 1 to September 29, 2015. Uttarakhand had experienced overall rainfall measuring 881.6 mm against normal rainfall of 1226.8 mm (showing departure minus 28 per cent) last year. Things were more or less the same in 2014 too.
The meteorological centre figures clearly indicate that the state experienced deficient rainfall for two consecutive years-2015 and 2014. In 2013, the withdrawal of monsoon was declared on October 17 while in 2014 the date was October 5. In 2015, the monsoon withdrew on September 29.
Singh said that the duration of monsoon season in Uttarakhand usually spans over four months, starting from June 1 and closing on September 30.