India recorded 10 per cent excess rainfall, which is highest this monsoon since 1994, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said classifying it ‘above normal’ as the season officially ended on Monday. The monsoon rainfall was 110 per cent of its Long Period Average, which is 88 cm. However, rain bearing winds still remain active over several parts of the country. Delhi may witness scattered rains over the next three to four days, according to the IMD.
Rainfall was “above normal” this year, the IMD said. Monsoon, however, still remains active over several parts of the country, the weather agency said. This could be the longest recorded delayed withdrawal of the rain-bearing winds, it added. Of the 36 meteorological subdivisions of the IMD, two — Madhya Pradesh and Saurashtra and Kutch — recorded precipitation in “large excess”.
The 2019 southwest monsoon season comes to end with above normal seasonal (June to September) rainfall. Out of 36 meteorological subdivisions, 10 received excess and 19 sub divisions received normal monsoon rainfall. Out of 36 sub divisions, 5 sub divisions however received deficient rainfall, but deficiency was in 20s except for Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh where the deficiency was 42 percent. The five sub divisions accounted about 15 percent of total area of the country.
“On an average, about 20% of area of the country receives deficient or scanty rainfall during the monsoon season. In spite of late monsoon onset and large deficient rainfall during the month of June, the seasonal rainfall ended in above normal category with 110% of its LPA. Monsoon rainfall during July, August and September were 105%, 115% and 152% of its Long Period Average respectively,” the IMD said.
After 1931, this is the first time, the seasonal rainfall is more than LPA even after the June rainfall deficiency was more than 30% of LPA. This is the second highest September rainfall (152 of LPA), after 1917 (165% of LPA). After 2010, this is the first time, rainfalls during all the last three months (July to September) were above LPA.