The months of December, January as well as February are the rainiest for the hills of North India inclusive of the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh as well as Uttarakhand. In fact, their contribution towards the overall rainfall is also quite high.
However, this season, the story has been completely different. More than two third of the season is over and the region has not displayed even an average performance in terms of rain and snow. Usually, the months of January and February are the months when most amount of rain and snow are observed over the hills of North India.
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This time, the performance has been quite poor for all the three hilly states of North India. In fact, if the period between January 1 and February 7 is considered, all the three regions were largely rain deficient. While Jammu and Kashmir saw a deficiency of 94 percent, Himachal Pradesh was rain deficient by 92 percent and Uttarakhand observed a deficit of 73 percent.
The last significant rain and snow spell that the region observed lasted for three days between February 11 and 13 with rain and snow being at their peak on February 12. Snowfall was quite heavy at a few places with many hilly resorts including Srinagar, Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Shimla, Manali etc. witnessing snowfall activity.
Thereafter, there was some improvement in the rainfall deficiency to some extent, however, the improvement was only slight. Thus, between February 8 and 14, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 51.5 mm of rain against 26 mm resulting in an excess of 98 percent. Whereas, Himachal Pradesh saw the rains at 31.7 mm against 23.6 mm which resulted in an excess of 34 percent.
Meanwhile, the state of Uttarakhand continued to remain deficient since it only recorded 6 mm against 13.7 mm resulting in the deficit percentage of 56.
Now, looking at the seasonal figures, between January 1 and February 14, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 58.6 mm rain against 142.9 mmm resulting in 59 percent rain deficiency. Himachal Pradesh received 41.4 mm against 143.4 mm of rain resulting in a rainfall deficiency of 71 percent.
On the other hand, Uttarakhand recorded 23.6 mm of rain against 78.7 mm resulting in rainfall deficiency of 70 percent.
The rain deficiency recovered to some extent due to the last rainfall and snow spell. Rains, however were not equally distributed within the region as well as among the states. Some districts received excess rains resulting in excess rainfall, while other areas witnessed deficit rains.
The tables below will give a much better explanation of rain figures:
Table for Jammu and Kashmir
Table for Himachal Pradesh
The state of Uttarakhand saw deficiency figures in pockets as well. In fact, the two saviours were Bageshwar and Pithoragarh which observed rain deficiency of 7 percent. Meanwhile, Pauri Garhwal saw a rain deficiency of a whopping 98 percent.
As per weathermen, no significant system will affect the hilly states of North India in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Image Credit: India.com
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com
