68% surplus rainfall in country

Monsoon has brought bumper showers this year, with the country receiving a remarkable 68 per cent surplus rainfall till on Monday.

New Delhi: Monsoon has brought bumper showers this year, with the country receiving a remarkable 68 per cent surplus rainfall till on Monday.

29 out of the 36 subdivisions have received excess rainfall so far, statistics released by Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said today.

According to the data, the normal expected rainfall in the country from June 1 to June 17 is 67.2 mm, while the rain gauges have measured 112.9 mm of rain so far, which is 68 per cent more than normal.

Of the 36 subdivisions, excess rains have been received at 29, normal at three, deficient at one and scanty at three.

"This surplus is fortunately very well spread. As of now 91 per cent of the geographical area of the country has received either normal or excess which is a very positive sign," said IMD Chief LS Rathore.

"It is a crop sowing stage and rainfall at this stage is very crucial. Only 9 per cent which is primarily confined to East and most of it is North-East where rainfall is either deficient or scanty will now fill up," he said.

Rathore said fortunately north-eastern India had received a very good pre-monsoon rainfall. So this deficiency doesn`t give any kind of stress which you can perceive.

However, because of the heat in the last week, there were some casualties but that will also be now under control.

Talking about Uttarakhand, which has been lashed by very heavy rains in the last couple of days, Rathore said, "For another 24 hours, Uttarakhand will continue to get some rainfall...Thereafter progressively the system is likely to move towards East, so also the rainfall bank which is going to migrate to East India and thereafter particularly beyond 20th of June, the rain will pick up in the north-eastern region.

Actually the reason is that, the monsoon circulations` interaction with the western disturbance also gets a fillip because of the organic lifting over Uttarakhand. But now after 24 hours, situation is going to ease out from this part of the country, he said.

PTI

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