0 Comment(s) *
* The moderation of comments is automated and not cleared manually by indianexpress.com.
India's four-month rainfall season generally begins on June 1, with the onset of the monsoon in Kerala. The monsoon is crucial, as it provides nearly 70 per cent of the rain needed by farmers. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the country would witness a normal monsoon this year in its first Long Range Forecast (LRF) released Thursday. If realised, this would be the fourth consecutive year when the IMD is predicting normal rainfall.
Normal monsoon likely during June to September 2022, says India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its first Long Range Forecast released on Thursday. @IndianExpress @ExpressPune
— Anjali Marar (@LittleMurthy) April 14, 2022
IMD officials said the onset of the Southwest Monsoon, which brings as much as 75 per cent of the country’s annual rainfall, over Kerala remains June 1. Every year, IMD releases the long-range forecast in two stages in April and June.
“The southwest monsoon rainfall during June to September will be normal and quantitatively, it will be 99 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) which is 87cm,” said M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
The country’s monsoon seasonal rainfall is considered normal when quantitatively it remains 96 to 104 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA). This year, the IMD downgraded the summer monsoon’s seasonal rainfall to 87 cm (based on 1971-2020) from the earlier 88 cm (based on 1961-2010).
“This is an international practice to verify the seasonal rainfall once in a decade. The decrease in the seasonal rainfall is due to the natural multidecadal epochal variability of wet and dry epochs (30 years) of India’s rainfall. From the rainfall data obtained from 4,132 rain gauges across the country for the period 1971-2020, it has been observed that the seasonal rainfall has reduced from 88cm to 87cm,” said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general, IMD.
A significant decrease in the rainfall was noted during 1971-2020 along the Northeast India regions, he added. Similarly, the all-India annual rainfall, too, has decreased from 1176.9 mm (based on 1961-2010) to 1160.1mm (based on 1971-2020), the IMD chief said.
Of the annual rainfall that the country receives, about 75 per cent occurs during June to September months. July and August remain the wettest months contributing 70 per cent of the summer monsoon’s total rainfall whereas rainfall recorded in June and September contributes 15 per cent, each, of the season’s rainfall.
The IMD will release the second stage of LRF towards the end of May just before the monsoon onset.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
