Monsoon nears mid-season: India sees 8% above normal rain, raises hopes for good kharif yield

Punjab, Bihar, Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have remained rain deficient this season so far.

Among the four monsoon months, July brings the highest all-india rainfall and is crucial for the season’s rainfall. Rainfall in July across the country is expected to be near normal this year after an above normal rainfall in June. This has raised hopes for a good kharif yield and replenishment of water resources.

Of 28 days this month so far, the all-India mean rainfall remained marginally below normal only on 12 days. The average rainfall per cent (with above normal rainfall) for this period was 10.5%. After the coverage of the southwest monsoon onset across the country realised on June 29, the all-India rainfall for July was 267.4mm (5.4%) above normal until July 28.

According to IMD, back-to-back development of low pressure systems and sometimes depressions (rain-bearing systems) in the Bay of Bengal since late June along with favourable, prolonged positioning of the monsoon trough to its normal position helped monsoon to remain active during the first three weeks of July. This maintained the rainfall consistently above normal this month.

These favourable systems brought continuous rainfall over north and northwest India, particularly Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.