Pan India comprises of four meteorological regions namely Northwest India, South Peninsula, East/Northeast India and Central India. In Northwest India we talk about the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh whose geographical terrain consist of hills, greenfield, plains and deserts.
Here winter rains also have a varied pattern. The winter season commences over Northwest India in the month of November, picking up pace from December and thereafter, January and February being the coldest months of the season.
Going with the statistical data, winter rains in the month of November and December remained very poor with only one pocket i.e. Jammu and Kashmir receiving near normal rains. Rest parts of Northwest India were largely rain deficient. Uttar Pradesh was the worst performer with 80% deficiency.
Following a similar trend, January 2019 also began on a poor note as no significant rains were observed. Entire Northwest India was rain deficient by 27% till the mid of January. Only two pockets, Jammu and Kashmir and West Rajasthan experienced near normal rains.
But during the second half of January the scenario changed completely as back to back active weather systems were seen affecting the hills and plains of North India. In the wake of these systems, heavy rain and snow was observed over the hills. Plains too observed good rains. The deficiency got wiped out completely by January 31 and rainfall in Northwest India was surplus by 26%.
Almost all the states were largely surplus with Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand being the winner. East Uttar Pradesh was the only region where a rainfall deficit of 31% was observed.
Further, in February with the ongoing significant weather activities over all the states, the first 10 days of the month has turned out to be largely rain surplus for Northwest India by a total of 71%, barring East Rajasthan which is still deficient by -10%.
As on February 10, Jammu and Kashmir is more than 100% rain surplus. Haryana is 3% surplus while East Uttar Pradesh which was largely deficient in January is surplus by 2%.
Therefore, we can say that the overall performance of rains over Northwest India is satisfactory so far.
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