NEW DELHI: India’s 2019 monsoon season (June-September) is likely to end with normal rains and may start withdrawing from mid-September, said sources at the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
So far during the season, India got 754.1 mm of rains until September 5 as against normal or long period average of 744.7 mm, showed IMD data.
In June, the IMD predicted that seasonal rainfall would be normal at 96 per cent, plus/minus 4 per cent.
“With the current spell of rains over Central India, the country as a whole may get normal monsoon during the current season though some areas may remain in deficit category,” the sources said.
While 30 per cent area of the country got excess rains, 55 per cent received normal precipitation, data showed.
However, 15 per cent of the area received deficit rainfall.
Both Central India and South Peninsula got surplus rains but the other two regions--East and Northeast India, and Northwest India--received below normal rains.
East, Northeast and Northwest are likely to get below normal rains in the remaining part of the season though the gap may narrow in the coming days when monsoon will start withdrawing from Rajasthan, said sources.
In East and Northeast India NMMT (Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura), Gangetic West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand meteorological subdivisions got below normal rains while West Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi meteorological subdivisions in North India are in deficit category.
Like in the past, this year also monsoon retreat has been delayed and may start by mid-September as conditions are not favourable, said the sources.
The normal date of withdrawal is September 1, but for the last many years, this has been delayed.
As of now, the monsoon trough is there and also winds are not favourable for the withdrawal, the sources said.
This year, the monsoon hit the Kerala coast on June 8 against the normal date of June 1. The monsoon’s progress was also affected due to the Vayu cyclone in early June.
However, the revival in monsoon rains during July-August improved kharif sowing activity across the country.
Total kharif crops sowing stood at 1,009.50 lakh hectares as of August 30 versus 1,027.17 lakh hectares year ago, as per farm ministry data.
