There’s a north-south divide in rainfall distribution in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Telangana might have recorded the highest surplus rainfall in the country this monsoon season. But a close look at the official data reveals that the distribution of rainfall in the region has been rather skewed.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad figures, Telangana recorded 33% excess rainfall — 947.9 mm as opposed to the previous 713.7 mm — between June 1 and now.Of this, while the northern districts such as Adilabad, Nirmal, Jagtial, Nizamabad received “excess to large excess” rainfall (excess is 20%-59%, large excess is 60%), the southern and eastern districts like Nagarkurnool, Jogulamba Gadwal, Wanaparthy received relatively less rainfall.

Experts attribute this to shift in weather systems — like troughs, cyclonic circulation, low-pressure area etc — and explain how large variability in distribution of monsoon happens once every few years. “Whenever the weather systems are over Odisha coast and central parts of the country, the northern districts tend to receive high amount of rain. However, when the systems are around the Andhra Pradesh coast, Godavari and Krishna, the southern districts receive higher amount of rain,” said A Shravani, meteorologist, IMD, Hyderabad.
Experts also point out how the dry spells or days with little or no rain and events of extremely heavy rains in a short period, have increased in the past few years. “For the last 10 years we have observed an increasing trend in rainfall activity, particularly in Telangana. Until last month, the state was experiencing a monsoon break for a brief period. Now suddenly, the rainfall activity has resumed with increase in extreme rainfall events,” said YV Rama Rao, consultant meteorologist, Telangana State Development Planning Society, adding that this phenomena will continue due to land surfaces warming up, rise in atmospheric temperature and increase in moisture levels.