June rainfall 20% below average as monsoon stalls - IMD
Rainfall totals since june 1 have been 10.2 mm (seventy percent less than average) in northwest india, 50.5 mm (thirty-one percent less than normal) in central india, 106.6 mm (16 percent higher than usual) in the south peninsula, and 146.7 mm (15 percent less than normal) in east and northeast India.
On May 19, the southwest monsoon moved into the Nicobar Islands. Together with Cyclone Remal, it eventually engulfed the majority of the southern and a few portions of the central Bay of bengal by May 26.
By june 12, it had progressively spread to all of the northeastern states, most of sub-Himalayan West bengal, Sikkim, and southern Maharashtra; most of southern chhattisgarh and southern Odisha; and the whole states of kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
The monsoon did not advance further after that, and on june 18, it passed through Navsari, Jalgaon, Amravati, Chandrapur, Bijapur, Sukma, Malkangiri, and vizianagaram before reaching its northern limit, according to the IMD.
According to the projection, June's national average rainfall is most likely to be below average (less than 92% of the LPA).
While below-average rainfall is predicted in many regions of northwest and adjacent central india, as well as in some parts of northeast india, normal to above-normal rainfall is forecast in most sections of the southern peninsula and some portions of northeast India.
It is anticipated that monsoon rainfall in india will be below average in the northeast, normal in the northwest, and above average in the central and south peninsula areas.
The majority of India's rain-fed agricultural regions are located in the central monsoon zone, which is expected to get above-average rainfall this season, according to the Met Office.
Since the majority of the Kharif crop is sown in june and July, these months are regarded as the most significant monsoon months for agriculture.
Scientists noted that while El Nino conditions are dominant right now, La Nina might arrive by august or September.
El Nino, the cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean's surdata-face waters, is linked to drier weather in india and weakened monsoon winds. The opposite of El Nino, La Nina, results in an abundance of precipitation during the monsoon season.