IMD Says India Will Receive Above Normal Rainfall This Monsoon, Raises Hopes Of Bumper Farm Output

The average rainfall this season is likely to be 103 per cent of the long period average, IMD Director-General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.

New Delhi: Raising hopes of a bumper farm output that would help in reining in inflation, the Indian Meteorological Department said on Tuesday that India would receive above normal rainfall this monsoon season. The average rainfall this season is likely to be 103 per cent of the long period average, PTI quoted IMD Director-General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra as saying. In April, the weather office said the country would receive normal rainfall -- 99% of the long period average. 

"The average rainfall this monsoon season is expected to be 103% of the long period average," India Meteorological Department Director-General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told reporters.

States that are dependent on rainfall for agriculture, like Gujarat and Odisha, will see above normal rainfall at more than 106 per cent of the long period average.

"Most parts of the country will have good and well-distributed rainfall activity," Mohapatra said while releasing the Updated Long Range Forecast of Rainfall for the current monsoon season.

Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said central India and south peninsula would receive above normal rainfall, while north-east and north-west regions were likely to get normal rains.

This is the fourth consecutive year that India is likely to experience a normal monsoon. Earlier, India had witnessed normal monsoon from 2005-08 and 2010-13.

The IMD had announced the onset of monsoon over Kerala on May 29, three days ahead of schedule.

When asked about the "hasty" declaration of monsoon over Kerala, Mohapatra said that a scientific process was followed to announce the onset and progress of monsoon.

The IMD chief asserted that 70 per cent of the weather stations in Kerala had reported fairly widespread rainfall and other parameters related to strong westerly winds and cloud formation over the region were fulfilled.

Mohapatra said the prevailing La Nina conditions, which refer to the cooling of the equatorial Pacific region, were expected to continue till August and augur well for the monsoon rains in India, PTI reported.

However, the possibility of the development of negative Indian Ocean Dipole, which refers to cooler than normal sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean, could lead to below normal rainfall in extreme southwestern peninsula that includes Kerala.

Most parts of the country, barring J&K, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh, are expected to experience below normal maximum temperatures in June, Mohapatra said.