By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Government says, the monsoon rainfall had been normal [92% of the Long Period Average (LPA)] during June 2022, for the country as a whole. The LPA of the rainfall for the month of June being 165.4 mm based on the data of 1971-2020. The rainfall in June is said to be normal if it is within 92% to 108% of LPA.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh informed about the early onset of southwest monsoon and said, this is an inherent property observed in the inter-annual variability of monsoon behaviour. This year the monsoon onset over Kerala was on 29th May, 2022 against the normal date of 01st June (3 days ahead of normal date) and it has covered the entire country on 2nd July 2022, against the normal date of 8th July i.e. six days ahead of the normal date for monsoon coverage for the entire country.
Quoting a report released by IMD, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that five states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Nagaland have shown significant decreasing trends in southwest monsoon rainfall during the recent 30 years period (1989-2018). The annual rainfall over these five states along with the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh also show significant decreasing trends. Other states do not show any significant changes in southwest monsoon rainfall during the same period.
IMD has studied and investigated the observed changes of rainfall patterns and its extremes in the recent 30 years in different states and districts and 29 Reports of states and UTs on “Observed Rainfall Variability and Changes” have been published by IMD in January 2020
Considering district-wise rainfall, there are many districts in the country, which show significant changes in southwest monsoon and annual rainfall during the recent 30 years period (1989-2018). With regard to the frequency of heavy rainfall days, significant increasing trend is observed over Saurashtra& Kutch, South-eastern parts of Rajasthan, Northern parts of Tamil Nadu, Northern parts of Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas of Southwest Odisha, many parts of Chhattisgarh, Southwest Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Manipur & Mizoram, Konkan& Goa and Uttarakhand.
