After its vigorous revival in the first week of July that saw floods, cloudbursts, and landslides in several parts of the country, the Southwest Monsoon ended with a seven percent deficit for the month, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday.
The rainfall in July was minus seven percent which comes to around 93 percent of the Long Period Average, IMD Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra said.
Rainfall in the range of 96-104 is normal whereas precipitation in the range of 90-96 is classified as below normal.
July recorded extremely heavy rainfall over coastal and central Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka. Several towns and cities in Maharashtra were deluged to very heavy rainfall which resulted in catastrophic events like landslides claiming scores of lives and damaging property.
The north Indian states -- Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Ladakh -- also saw cloudburst events that claimed several lives.
The national capital too recorded a very good rainfall activity. But overall, the rainfall recorded for the month was seven percent less.
The IMD had predicted normal rainfall in July.
"We had predicted normal rainfall for July which was somewhere around 96 percent of the LPA. July brings maximum rain over the country, but there was no rainfall activity over north India until July 8 which could have been the reason behind the deficit," Mohapatra said.
The Southwest Monsoon arrived over Kerala on June 3, two days after its normal schedule. But it very rapidly covered the east, west, south and parts of north India by June 19.
But after that, it entered into a phase that witnessed a spell of no rainfall activity. It started reviving on July 8.
The Southwest Monsoon reached Delhi on July 13 after a delay of 16 days and covered the entire country the same day.
June received 10 percent more rainfall than normal. Of the four-month rainfall season, July and August receive the maximum precipitation.
Overall, the country has received one percent less rainfall than normal from June 1 to July 31. The deficit was minus 13 percent in the east and northeast subdivision of the IMD. Northwest India division which covers north India recorded a two percent deficit.
The south peninsula division which covers the southern states received 17 percent more rainfall while the central India division that comprises west and central India recorded one percent more rainfall than the normal.
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