Monsoon deficit drops to 20 percent in India

During the week ending Sep 9, the country as a whole and all the four broad homogeneous regions have received above-normal rainfall. Northwest India received 39 mm of rainfall, nearly 18 percent more than the average during this time, the department officials said.
While central India got more than 20 percent of its normal, the southern peninsula got 29 percent more rains during the week. Northeast India received over 84 mm of rain, which is 22 percent more than the normal level during Sep 3-9.

Overall, India received an excess of 56 mm of rain, at least 21 percent more than the normal level.

This continuous rainfall, the IMD said, was due to a cyclonic circulation that originated in the Bay of Bengal and later got concentrated on central Madhya Pradesh.
However, the IMD said that out of 36 meteorological subdivisions, rainfall was excess in 18, normal in four, deficient in 11 and scanty in three sub-divisions during the last week.
“The cumulative seasonal rainfall for the country as a whole is now 20 percent below the Long Period Average (LPA) against when it was 23 percent below LPA up to last week (ending Sep 2),” an IMD official said.

Considering the nationwide rains during the period of June 1 to Sep 9, the rainfall was excess in nine percent of the districts, normal in 33 percent, deficient in 49 percent and scanty in nine percent of the total districts of the country.