Monsoon wipes out gains in erratic Aug

On June 30, a month into the rainy season, India had received 8.9% more monsoon rains than normal.

- Jayashree Nandi

These were not evenly distributed across the country, but were in excess cumulatively - excesses of 42.2% over northwest India and 24.8% over central India, but deficiencies of 16.9% over east and northeast India and 2.7% over peninsular India.

This trend carried into the next month. As on July 31, India had received 6.4% excess monsoon rain. Again, these were spread unequally - 21.1% excess over northwest India, 22.9% excess over central India, a 22% deficiency over east and northeast India and a 2.3% shortfall over peninsular India.

Within the first 13 days of August, India’s overall rain surplus has shrunk significantly, with the country receiving its usual quantum of monsoon rain so far this month - neither an excess nor a deficiency, showed data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This, despite a clutch of states receiving significantly more rain than normal, underscoring the deep variations that now characterise the monsoon, with its patterns ravaged by the climate crisis.