Telangana records 31% excess rainfall this year

HYDERABAD: Telangana recorded 31% excess rainfall this year, the highest in the country in all sub-divisional meteorological regions. Figures by India Meteorological Department (IMD) indicate that from June 1 to September 20, the state recorded 920.7 mm of rains as against a normal of 701.2 mm.
As the southwest monsoon is inching closer to its withdrawal, IMD figures indicate eight regions in the country have recorded excess rainfall.Of them, Telangana is the most surplus state with 31% of excess rains, followed by Marathwada, Rayalaseema, north interior Karnataka, West Bengal, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Konkan and Goa and Andaman and Nicobar.

“This is the first time in the past many years that Telangana has recorded highest surplus rains in the country. It can be attributed to seven systems that the state witnessed into low-pressure areas, cyclonic circulations and troughs.
Of them, two occurred in June, three in July and two in August,” said Naga Ratna, in-charge director, IMD, Hyderabad, adding that even now, rains are triggered by a trough extending from south interior Karnataka to south Tamil Nadu across Telangana.
Telangana recorded 48% of excess rains by the end of southwest monsoon last year. However, it was not the highest in the country as Sourashtra Kutch recorded 126% of excess rains in 2020
. Experts have attributed this to change in weather patterns. “Usually, the weather systems developing over Bay of Bengal have a tendency to travel in the northwesterly direction towards Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
However, in the last few years, the track of monsoon systems changed and it is now travelling in the westerly direction across central parts triggering massive rains over Telangana,” explained Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, meteorology and climate change, Skymet Weather, an independent weather forecasting agency.
Raising concerns over the change in weather patterns, climate experts said that the phenomena are here to stay. “This change in directions of the weather systems can be attributed to climate change.
We have to see if these systems continue to proceed westerly as against its usual direction to be able to confirm it as a change in monsoon pattern,” added Palawat.