Kerala records highest 24-hr rainfall of current monsoon

Kochi: While rainfall in the current monsoon season has remained deficient, Kerala received more than 5cm rainfall in the past 24 hours, the highest rainfall recorded in the state since June 1.IMD officials said that the normal rainfall in 24 hours was 2.1cm. In comparison, the state recorded 5.3cm rainfall between 8.30am on Friday and 8.30am on Saturday. Moreover, the state managed to bring down the deficiency from 32% on Friday morning to 27% by Saturday morning.“Kerala received 48.6cm till Friday morning since June 1. By Saturday, the amount of rainfall received by the state stood at 53.9cm,” said an official, adding that the normal rainfall for the season is 73cm.Over the last 24 hours, Kumarakom (13.5cm) and Kottayam (12.4cm) received the highest rainfall in the state.While IMD has warned of heavy rainfall in the central and northern disticts from Monday to Wednesday, meteorologists say the state will continue to experience a dry phase after two or three days of rainy days.“Normally, the southwest monsoon progresses by mid-June. However, it progressed only now with Kerala receiving continuous rainfall in the last two or three days only.

This is how monsoon should progress with a southwesterly wind band, carrying moisture, coming one after another. However, no wind band is seen after this, which we are currently experiencing. All climate models say the current rains will last only for a few more days and the dry phase will start soon after that,” said K Rajendran, director of Institute for Climate Change Studies.He also said that the formation of El Nino in the central Pacific will continue to have an impact on the arrival of southwesterly winds.

“All climate models of various agencies show that El Nino of this year is going to be severer than the major one the world witnessed in 1997. We were exempted from the severity of 1997 El Nino thanks to positive Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) resulting in heavy rainfall in the monsoon. No positive IOD is there, which raises concerns.

If there is possibility for positive IOD, signals of it should emerge by June or July. However, no such signals have emerged so far,” he said.When the El Nino hit the world in 1997, the sea surface temperature (SST) rose by 1.5-1.7°C. However, this time, the SST is projected to rise by three degrees when the El Nino peaks.