All-India rain trend turns surplus after pounding of West, North-West India

The country’s rainfall statistics for the season so far shifted from a deficit of 7 percent just five days ago to a surplus of 2 percent on Monday morning thanks to strong monsoons over western and northwest India over the weekend. Individual deficits persisted in Peninsular India, despite marginal improvement in affected meteorological subdivisions.

Jharkhand is now the hardest hit

Of the 36 subdivisions in total, 15 are in deficit while the remainder are in the normal, plus, or major plus categories, updated Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Statistics showed as of Sunday evening. Jharkhand (-39 percent) remained the worst hit, followed by Marathwada (-36 percent); the plains of West Bengal (-34 percent); Telangana and North Interior Karnataka (-35 percent each); and Nagaland – Manipur – Mizoram – Tripura (-30 per cent). The rest is 20 percent more manageable and lower.

Northwest directions of India

On Monday, indications are that bands of heavy rain over northwest India may now shift to Uttar Pradesh, after pounding the nearby hills and plains over the weekend. IMD said light to moderate to somewhat scattered to heavy to very heavy rain may continue to lash the hills, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan on Monday and shift focus to Uttar Pradesh for the next five days. Heavy to very heavy rains are expected in four days in Uttar Pradesh.

The low pressure area continues

The causative low pressure area has been floating over southwestern Rajasthan and may continue to move over the next few days within the larger monsoon basin that extends through Kota, Satna, Daltungang and Bankura and east to Manipur. Its eastern end may swing into the Bay of Bengal with the formation of a cyclonic circulation sooner rather than later, bringing the monsoon from East India up again.

heavy for eastern India

The IMD has fairly broadly forecast light to moderate rain with heavy to very heavy rains for the hills of Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur over the next five days. Isolated heavy rains are likely over Odisha during this period; over Jharkhand for the next three days; Heavy to very heavy have been isolated over Bihar for three days from tomorrow. In western India, a two-day forecast said moderate to widespread rain with isolated torrential rains is likely to continue over the Konkan, Goa and Ghat regions of Madhya Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Kerala, coastal Karnataka

In the rain-deficient central India region, light to moderate to moderately widespread to widespread rain is likely with isolated heavy rainfall over the next five days. Heavy to very heavy rains are likely in western Madhya Pradesh on Monday. Also over southern India, light to moderate to widespread rain is expected with isolated heavy rainfall on the coast of Karnataka and Kerala over the next five days.