India records 16 per cent surplus rain in July, IMD forecasts wet start to August

The IMD has warned about very heavy rainfall (115.4 mm to 204 mm in 24 hours) over several districts in Kerala, Mahe, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karaikal and Karnataka till August 4. Some of these include Shimoga, Niligiris, Thiruvananthapuram, Kanyakumari, Allapuzha, Ernakulam, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Idukki, which have been placed on ‘orange’ alert.

The enhanced rainfall over large parts of peninsular India will be aided by the presence of a north-south trough between south Chhattisgarh and Comorin. Another contributing factor will be the development of a shear zone over extreme south of the peninsular region on Tuesday.

With half of the monsoon season now over, the all-India rainfall at the end of July stood at 8 per cent above normal. India has recorded 480 mm rainfall since June 1. Due to active monsoon, the all-India rainfall for July ended with 16 per cent surplus. Except Jharkhand (- 49 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (-46 per cent), Bihar (-39 per cent), Manipur (-37 per cent), Tripura (-30 per cent), West Bengal and Kerala (-26 per cent), all other states and Union Territories have either received normal or above rainfall in the season.

The July rainfall on a regional scale in east and northeast India fared poor and ended with -44.7 per cent whereas all other regions received normal rainfall. For the season, the southern peninsula leads with 28 per cent excess rain so far followed by central India (17 per cent) and northwest India (five per cent). East and northeast India were 16 per cent short of normal, keeping the region deficient throughout the season.

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Active monsoon prevailed throughout the country for most of July but rainfall remained below normal only on eight days as compared to 20 deficient days in June, according to IMD data.