Monsoon 'normal' in country; below par in Punjab, Haryana

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, September 30

The India Meteorological Department today said the southwest monsoon has been “normal” across the country this year, but it has been a notch below par in Punjab and Haryana. The rainfall has been surplus in HP.

With the monsoon withdrawing from many parts of northwest, the cumulative rainfall has been recorded at 820 mm against the long period average (LPA) of 868.6 mm.

According to IMD parameters, deviation up to 19 per cent above or below the LPA is within the range of normal. The monsoon has been surplus by 19 per cent in Himachal Pradesh, but has been below LPA by five per cent in Punjab and one per cent in Haryana. From June 1 till September 30, Himachal received 876.4 mm rain against the normal of 734.4 mm, Punjab received 417.5 mm against the normal of 439.8 mm and Haryana received 419.7 mm against the normal of 426 mm, according to IMD data. The northwest recorded 593 mm of rainfall compared to the LPA of 587.6 mm while central India, where agriculture predominantly relies on rains, recorded 981.7 mm against the normal of 978 mm. East and northeast India recorded 1,115 mm against the normal of 1,367.3 mm accounting for a deficit of 18 per cent while the southern peninsula recorded a deficit of 8%.

The monsoon has withdrawn from entire Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh, and from some parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. The line of withdrawal now passes through Gulmarg, Dharamsala, Pantnagar, Etawah, Morena, Sawai Madhopur, Jodhpur and Barmer, according to a bulletin issued by the IMD on September 30.

According to the IMD, certain positive factors helped counter the El Nino over the Pacific region, which are associated with weaker monsoon winds and drier conditions in India due to warming up of waters of the Pacific.

These include the Indian Ocean Dipole, associated with the difference in the sea surface temperatures between western and eastern regions of the Indian Ocean, and Madden-Julian Oscillation, a large-scale atmospheric disturbance originating in tropical Africa and travelling eastward.

These resulted in the monsoon season resulting in a 94.4 per cent cumulative rainfall.