Though the country experienced only few rainy days in August, the spells were enough in Gujarat to bring down the rain deficiency left behind by minimal rain showers observed in June and July.
Monsoon in Gujarat
The agro intensive state of India, Gujarat, is highly dependent on monsoon rain as the winter rain here is negligible. While the state witness high seasonal variability during the monsoon season, intense inter-seasonal variability, the adjacent sub-divisions of Gujarat and Saurashtra & Kutch are also not far behind.
Monsoon 2014 for Gujarat
As the onset of monsoon this year has been dismal for the whole country, it was equally grave for the Gujarat state where Saurashtra & Kutch witnessed a rain deficiency of 74% and it was 91% for Gujarat. As the good rain showers approached during mid-July, the situation improved marginally as Gujarat received a rain surplus of 2% in July alone.
The cumulative rain for the monsoon season ending on July was 30% deficit for Gujarat and 36% deficit for Saurashtra & Kutch.
As August approached, the two adjacent sub-divisions began to exhibit contrasting rainfall pattern as Gujarat suffered a rain deficiency of 44% whereas Saurashtra & Kutch had normal rainfall of 19% for the month.
The cumulative rain for the season ending on August turned out to be 32% deficit for Gujarat and normal of -16% (± 19% considered normal) for Saurashtra & Kutch.
The situation is expected to improve further as September is expected to receive good rain showers. Saurashtra & Kutch has received heavy rain of 21 mm as against the daily expected rain of 3.6 mm on the first day of September. So while it is 483% above normal for Saurashtra & Kutch on 1st September, it has been 91% above normal for Gujarat on the same day.
