According to weather department officials, the rain deficit from June to August in Kerala is unlikely to be made up with the rain in September.
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Even as the Southwest monsoon hit Kerala's shores on June 8, the progress of the monsoon since then has been abysmal with the threat of drought looming large over the state. Since the past two and a half months after the first rains on June 8, there have been little rains in the state. According to weather statistics, the state was supposed to receive 1556 mm of rain from June 1 to August 15 but only 877.1 mm of rain was recorded. This means that there is a shortage of 44% in the state during the period. In June there was an acute rain deficit and according to the weather department, Kerala had a shortage of 60% while in July the rains were better and the shortage was only 9%. However August is worse with many areas of the state having received no rain since the start of the month. From August 1 to August 15 ,the state received only 25.1 mm rainfall instead of the expected 254.6 mm and this led to around a 90% rain deficit. In Kerala, August receives the most rainfall. However with poor rainfall, the state is staring at a massive drought. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has also predicted that the state will not get rains for the next fifteen days and this has escalated the possibilities of a drought. While the average total rainfall during the four month monsoon period from June to September in the state is roughly 2018.7 mm, in September it is only 13% of the total rainfall. According to weather department officials, the rain deficit from June to August is unlikely to be made up with the rain in September. The weathermen have ruled out the possibility of heavy rainfall in September given the weather conditions. The water levels in the dams of the state are also at an alarmingly low level and the reservoirs managed by the Kerala State Electricity Board have only 37% water of the storage capacity. Sources in the Kerala government told IANS that the state is relying mainly on the Southwest monsoon for its paddy and other farming and if the rains are poor, paddy farming in the state will take a hit. In Palakkad and Kasargod the threat of crop failure is high and several farmers are watering their paddy fields using water from borewells. Dr R Rajeev, who retired from a national weather agency, told IANS, “There is a drought-like condition in the state as of now and the possibility of heavy rains making up the present losses is not very certain. We are expecting showers in September and it has to be seen how effective they will be given the present weather conditions in the Pacific.” #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Sign up to get Daily Wrap in your inbox * indicates required Email Address * First Name (function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true);
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