By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: The IMD office here on Wednesday said that South West Monsoon may touch the State by June 13.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday announced that it expects monsoon rainfall to be normal this year.
“Southwest monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be normal (96-104%),” the IMD said in its first stage Long Range Forecast (LRF) for monsoons.
“We will have a normal monsoon this year. Quantitatively the monsoon rainfall during the monsoon season 2020 is expected to be 100% of its long period average with an error of +5 or -5% due to model error,” the secretary with the ministry of earth sciences (MoES), said during a press briefing.
In its first stage Long Range Forecast (LRF) for south-west monsoon season (June-September) rainfall, the weather bureau also gave the dates of onset in several places.
LRF is the operational monsoon season forecast issued by the weather department from June to September for the entire country. It does not include regional level rainfall or specify quantum rainfall for the forecast period
The MeT department issues LRF in two stages—first stage forecast in April and the second one is issued in June.These forecasts are issued using Statistical Ensemble Forecasting System (SEFS) and dynamical coupled ocean-atmospheric models.
India receives about 70% of its annual rainfall during the monsoon that generally begins in June before starting to retreat by September.
The monsoon rainfall is crucial to rice, wheat, sugarcane and oilseeds cultivation in the country, where farming accounts for about 15% of the economy and employs over half of its people.
