Kerala Pulls Recovery, Turns Deficient To Normal

Kerala and Coastal Karnataka are the rainiest pockets over South Peninsula and the western Ghats during the southwest monsoon.  State of Kerala receives 65% of monsoon rainfall during 1^st half of the season and the remaining 35% in August and September. June and July have nearly equitable rainfall with the normal of 648.3mm in June and 653.5mm during July. Monsoon failure in any one of these months, as it happened this season,  becomes crucial and difficult to recover.

Monsoon 2022 started on a very soft note and recorded a submissive total of a mere 308.7mm against the normal of 648.3mm, in June. This inherited a huge shortfall of 52% to start with the season, stipulating a daunting task of recovery.  Problem was compounded when July just managed to draw its monthly rainfall of 652.6mm against normal of 653.5mm. However, the state managed to drop its overall deficiency to -26%, for the 1^st half of the season.

Month of August remained rather unpredictable.  The start was poor and the state suffered a shortfall of huge -81% rainfall during the week between 11^th-17^thAugust. However, the subsequent 2 weeks turned the table and brought the sub division to normal grade. The week between 18^th-24^thAug scored an excess of 28% rainfall and the last one between 25^th-31^stAug pulled the trigger, measuring surplus of massive 57%.

Courtesy, last two week of rainfall, the deficit margin has been lowered to just 13%. The state has recorded actual rainfall of 1539.1mm against the normal of 1759.1mm, between 01^st June and 01^st September 2022. The state will observe light to moderate rainfall between 02^nd and 04^th September. Intensity and the spread will increase later from 05^th to 09^th September.  Central and northern parts of the state may get heavy rainfall at few places during this period.