Normal monsoon this year, but may withdraw late, says IMD

TNN | Updated: Apr 16, 2020, 09:24 IST

Rains on schedule

PANAJI: India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday predicted a normal monsoon for the state during the June-September period and also released new reference dates for its arrival and withdrawal.
The new dates indicate whether the monsoon would be longer or shorter by a few days or even a week in state, but the bigger and more reassuring message was that rainfall is likely to be 100% of the long period average.
“Monsoon 2020 is going to have normal rainfall – 100% of what the long period average (LPA) for the entire country as a whole,” IMD said. As per new reference dates, the onset of monsoon for Goa remains the same as on June 7, but the withdrawal date gets delayed by four days to October 14.
IMD Goa scientist, Rahul MC said that the dates are based on the previous years’ data. Before this, the base data for this information was from 1901 to 1947. Now the latest data of 15 years has been taken into consideration. It’s been found that the dates are slightly different for some regions.
Goa’s onset date remains unchanged despite the IMD’s reading of the state having received rain nearly two weeks late, last year. However, change in withdrawal of monsoon or onset date do not have any relation with the amount of rainfall.
The 2019 monsoon is a striking example of that. The onset of monsoon was neither early nor was it the longest prevailing monsoon - since monsoon withdrew from Goa on October 16 - yet Goa had the highest quantum of rainfall in the last 50 years in that period. “In 2019, monsoon withdrew from Goa and entire country on October 16, but it wasn't the most delayed withdrawal from the whole country. In 2017, the date of complete withdrawal was October 25,” said Rahul.