Monsoon this year to be normal, withdrawal likely after September 15: IMD

“This month too, we are expecting to record above normal rainfall over the country. The monsoon this year will end up being normal,” said D Sivanand Pai, head, Climate Research and Services (CRS) at IMD, Pune.

As far as September rainfall is concerned, all regions except north-east and north-west have recorded normal rainfall till September 11.

The rainfall departures in each of the homogenous regions on the day were Central India (+21.2 per cent), South Peninsula (+9.7 per cent), East and North East ( -19.5 per cent) and North West (-8.5 per cent). As on Wednesday, the All India rainfall stood 2.8 per cent above normal.

The weakening of El Nino during early July and the consistent shifting of the monsoon trough between south and central India regions hugely benefited the overall rainfall this season. The rainfall distribution was fairly spatially even over most parts. In fact, this season saw many events of flooding in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.

However, the northeast region will end up remaining rainfall deficit , with meteorologists stating that most rain bearing systems formed in the Bay of Bengal traversed along Central India further either to the north or west.

As a result, the east and northeast regions that are otherwise wet areas during these four months were deprived of even normal rain in many areas.