The tale of deficit Monsoon has continued in the year 2018 as well. Moreover, for the last five years, rains have remained on the lower side wherein 2014 and 2015 were drought years, 2016 saw 97 percent of rains, 2017 recorded 95 percent of rainfall while Monsoon 2018 saw rains to the tune of 91 percent, which was quite close to the country seeing a drought year.
No two Monsoon seasons are the same. Monsoon is a prolonged season which leaves enough intricacies and mysteries to ponder with. The highlights for Monsoon 2018 are as follows:
Monsoon this year had a timely onset with good rains occurring in the initial days. However, a stagnant spell thereafter for two weeks resulted in late advancement over East India and parts of Uttar Pradesh. Thereafter, Monsoon did pick up pace and covered the country 15 days before its usual date.
The Monsoon season started off in La Nina, however, it rapidly changed to evolving El Nino conditions. All the four Monsoon months saw shortfall in an ascending with June observing the least deficiency and September seeing large deficit rainfall.
The country could have ended up witnessing drought conditions however, the situation was averted, all thanks to Cyclone Daye which caused hefty rainfall over many parts of the country saving India from a drought year.
Regionally, Northeast India was poor this year with the repeat of 2013 where the entire region was deficient.
On the other hand, North India was good with the state of Punjab witnessing above normal rains by 7 percent. Jammu and Kashmir saw 12 percent surplus rains while Himachal Pradesh was rainfall surplus by 11 percent.
Rainfed areas of Central India including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh did reasonably well. Only the drought prone area of Marathwada was deficient by 22 percent.
The state of Odisha like every year has maintained its surplus status and the decade old saga continues.
The only excess state has been Kerala which saw surplus rains to the tune of 23 percent. The most deficient pocket in the mainland has been Rayalaseema at -37 percent while Lakshadweep Islands have witnessed -45 percent of rains.
The time and spatial distribution of rains has been fairly conducive for agricultural areas barring just a few pockets.
The Monsoon season started with a cyclone in the Arabian Sea and has come to an end with a Cyclone Daye in the Bay of Bengal.
Core Monsoon months of July and August were also deficient which are generally complimentary with one another when one month performs if the other one underperforms.
Lastly, despite nearly drought conditions this season, flooding rains were seen in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Kerala, Northeast India, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh at some point of time during the Monsoon season.
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Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com
