Goa: June deficit dips to 9% after 24-hour wet spell

PANAJI: This season’s heaviest 24-hour spell of 75.6mm on Thursday morning came close to wiping out a 9% deficit, as June ended on a wet note for Goa despite a long-range forecast of below-normal monsoon over the Konkan region this June.
On Thursday, the seasonal total for the month ended at 830.2mm while 914.2mm is considered normal. But meteorologists are satisfied with the significant turnaround in rain activity after the shortfall had mounted to almost 50%.
“This has been an impressive recovery from a 47% deficit on June 20 to just 9%, as more than half of the month’s rainfall has been recorded in just 10 days,” Rahul M, scientist, India meteorological department (IMD), Panaji said.
Overall, a deficit or surplus of less than 20% is considered normal in terms of statewise rainfall.
The increased precipitation commenced as forecast on June 21 by IMD, Panaji, after a few systems boosted cloud formation. “It was mostly helped by the mid-level circulation off Maharashtra coast from June 22,” the IMD scientist said.
“The triple La Nina effect would have also helped both the state as well as the Indian subcontinent to reduce the deficit. The shortfall at the all India level is 8%,” said M R Ramesh Kumar, meteorologist and former chief scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa.
The copious rainfall activity kept its date with the Sao Joao festival as IMD recorded the wettest spell of 74.1mm on June 24. Two more spells of average daily rainfall of 72.9mm and 74.5mm on June 25 and 26 meant that the seasonal total shot up by 221.7mm in just three days, clipping the deficit to 14% at that stage.
However, the state average rainfall has not yet exceeded the century mark, as it usually does during June and July. Mormugao recorded the highest 24-hour rainfall of 180mm among all centres during the season so far.
The overall deficit though is negligible as IMD, New Delhi, had issued a long-range forecast that June was very likely to be below normal over Goa and neighbouring regions.
The local meteorological centre has issued an orange alert for a few days as a combination of some systems is likely to host intensive rainfall activity.