New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today announced that it expects monsoon rainfall to be normal this year.
“Southwest monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be normal (96-104%),” the IMD said in its first stage Long Range Forecast (LRF) for monsoons.
Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr. M. Rajeevan said, ” Good news is that it is estimated that the deficient rainfall will be 9 per cent. This forecast is based on the statistical model, it suggests that we will have a normal monsoon.”
The southwest monsoon season, that replenishes the country’s farm-dependent economy, first hits the southern tip of Kerala usually in the first week of June and retreats from Rajasthan by September.
Monsoons are expected to hit Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram on June 1. In states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Telegana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh, monsoon will be delayed by 3-7 days compared to the existing normal dates.
However, over extreme northwest India, the monsoon arrives now little earlier, on 8th July compared to the existing date of 15th July.
Monsoons are expected to withdraw in south India on October 15.
