Monsoon deficiency this season came down to 9% by the end of July after the country received above-normal rainfall during the month, PTI reported on Wednesday. Officials from the India Meteorological Department said they expected this deficit to further reduce as good rainfall is likely over the next two weeks.

July received 29.8 cm of rainfall as against the normal 28.5 cm, IMD Director General Mrityunjay Mohapatra said. Mohapatra took over from the previous chief, KJ Ramesh, on Tuesday.

Mohapatra said the rainfall in July was 105% of the long-period average – the average rainfall the whole country has received during the monsoon in the last 50 years.

In June, deficient rainfall had evoked fears that the country may face drought-like situation. The southwest monsoon hit Kerala on June 8 this year, a week later than normal. Its initial progress was sluggish, and covered the entire country by July 19.

As of June 30, the seasonal deficit was 33%, but it had come down to 9% by July 31. The season runs from June 1 to September 30.

The improvement in rainfall, however, was not equally distributed. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and parts of West Bengal received poor rainfall. Some parts of the country such as Bihar, Assam and Maharashtra witnessed floods.

Also read:

  1. Rain-related calamities have killed 2,000 Indians every year since 2016
  2. As the water crisis deepens, can India afford to leave groundwater unregulated?
  3. These satellite images show the severity of the floods in Assam and Bihar