A vigorous spell of Southwest Monsoon has brought bountiful rain over large parts of the country. At the same time, the ongoing spell has caused massive destruction over Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Kerala in the past one week.
For 13 straight days, till Tuesday, all-India rainfall has been above normal. On Tuesday, all-India seasonal rainfall was 289.9mm, 9 per cent above normal. Barring Jharkhand (-49 per cent), Kerala (-24 per cent), Tripura (-24 per cent), West Bengal (-21 per cent), Bihar (-36 per cent), Nagaland (-8 per cent) and Ladakh (-49 per cent),all other states and union territories have received either normal, above normal or excess rainfall since the start of the Southwest Monsoon season on June 1.
According to officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the prevailing rainfall deficit was not because of lack of rainfall but mainly because some areas (like Kerala and northeast) are heavy rainfall-receiving regions. For July, the average rainfall has been considerably high.
Currently, there are multiple synoptic weather systems keeping the monsoon active over India. These include an off-shore trough running between Gujarat and Karnataka, a well-marked low pressure system over south coastal Odisha, an east-west shear zone, the monsoon trough located to the south of its normal position and strong incoming westerly winds from the Bay of Bengal.
“Due to such conducive weather systems, monsoon will remain active till July 16 over central, western, eastern and peninsular India, with very heavy to extremely heavy spells likely over Gujarat, Saurashtra-Kutch, Konkan, Madhya Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha,” said IMD officials.