Monsoon in August - Rain Performance: Deluge or Deficiency?

July and August, both the core monsoon months, have performed well in terms of quantum of rainfall.

July outperformed August by registering 117% rainfall of long period average (LPA) and August finished very close to normal at 103% of LPA.

Month of August remained favorite for most central parts of the country. Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha recorded above normal or excess rainfall.

Indo Gangetic plains of north and east India remained distant cousins and observed large shortfall all along. Punjab and Haryana witnessed deficiency of 60% and 53% rainfall respectively.

National capital, Delhi was still worse with nearly a drought like conditions having shortfall of over 80% during the month. While South Peninsula broadly enjoyed monsoon bursts in most parts, monsoon lived to its reputation by leaving some pockets dry.

Marathwada recorded a large deficiency of 51% and Telangana and Coastal Andhra Pradesh managed a soft shortfall of 20% and 16% respectively. Entire Maharashtra had earlier shared the monsoon bounty in July but barely managed to scrape through in August.

While some of the pockets are still struggling to manage the deluge experienced earlier, few of the sub divisions remain stressed with a rain deficit of over 40% rainfall.

Eastern parts of the country covering Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and the entire stretch of Uttar Pradesh have reeled with perpetual shortfall, impacting the kharif crop cycle. Even, some good showers in the closing month of September may not be able to rescue some of these pockets from drought like conditions.

About 165 districts of the country are rain deficit, inclusive of large deficit in 25 districts. September being monsoon withdrawal month, rains start receding from the northern and western parts.

The weak phase of monsoon for the last one week is expected to get energized during 2nd week of September. Emergence of a fresh monsoon system over Bay of Bengal will revive the rains over central and western parts of the country.