Weather experts described the melodramatic behavior as “intriguing”
Never before had a southwest monsoon behaved in as tizzying a manner as an amusement park ride. It plumbed dangerous depths and blasted up to vertigo-inducing heights, causing severe confusion about its true nature. On August 1, the showers across
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a weak June and a weaker July first half, which triggered fears of a drought, the southwest monsoon picked up quite dramatically to peter out on September 30 with a slight excess. The state’s reservoirs, too, were flush with water but the gains of the monsoon seem to have been frittered away by a sudden surge in power consumption.
Never before had a southwest monsoon behaved in as tizzying a manner as an amusement park ride. It plumbed dangerous depths and blasted up to vertigo-inducing heights, causing severe confusion about its true nature. On August 1, the showers across the state clocked a record 90 mm, but a day before it was below 10 mm, considerably lower than normal.
Weather experts described the melodramatic behavior as “intriguing”. Southwest monsoon generally has only two phases: the first phase of heavy rains and which spreads from June to the last week of July and then the second phase which sees a gradual weakening from the end of July to the last days of September.
Districts like Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Palakkad that suffered huge rain deficit at least till August finally made an amazing turnaround. “The southwest monsoon finally resolved into a happy ending but the relatively copious rains, though they filled up the reservoirs, were used up without discretion,” a top KSEB source said.
The surge in power demand, in spite of the rains, had forced the KSEB to step up hydel generation beyond sustainable levels. Hydel generation on an average was 30 MU when usually the average during the August-September period is 20 MU and below. The Idukki reservoir, for instance, now has water to generate only 1500 million units. Last year same time, it had water to generate nearly 2100 MU.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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