In contrary to the prediction of deficit rain in the monsoon season by India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country is witnessing a good amount of rainfall during the season. Apart from this, the rainfall deficit is continuing to shrink as IMD has predicted more rainfall in various parts of the country and warned of heavy rainfall in some regions.
Seasonal rainfall is now just 5 <g data-gr-id="19">per cent</g> below the 50-year average as monsoon rainfall has been abundant in east Rajasthan, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Gujarat, <g data-gr-id="18">Rajsthan</g>, Konkan and coastal Karnataka. The IMD has issued warnings of extremely heavy rainfall in the coming week in most of these places, and Odisha.
“The weather system will continue to bring heavy rainfall over many districts of West Madhya Pradesh, East Rajasthan and Kutch during the next 24 hours. The system is likely to gain more strength and could also turn into a depression in the next 24 hours. We can expect heavy to very heavy rainfall in West Rajasthan and Saurashtra and Kutch during the next 48 hours,” said the official release of Ministry of Earth Sciences on Tuesday.
In June, IMD made a below-normal monsoon forecast and then further downgraded its outlook for the June-September season to 88 <g data-gr-id="23">per cent</g> of the 50-year average, evoking fears of a possible drought year.
One of the main reasons for the poor monsoon forecast was the strengthening of El Niño, a weather phenomenon that leads to warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean, triggering atmospheric changes that affect rainfall in India.