The Hindu : IMD mum on future course of monsoon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 08, 2002

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National

IMD mum on future course of monsoon

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI Aug. 7. Once bitten, twice shy. With the first half of the monsoon season turning out to be in variance from its pre-season forecast, the India Meteorological Department has, in a major departure from the past, refrained from coming up with any forecast of what it could be in the second half.

For some years, the IMD had been coming out with a mid-season review in the first week of August. It made a brief presentation on the performance of the monsoon in the first two months and a forecast on what could be expected in the next two. This year too it has come out with a mid-season review, confined to a recapitulation of how the monsoon has performed so far. There was no word on the forecast for the next two months. As for the performance so far, the report is quite telling. The rainfall has been below the normal range in as many as 390 out of the 523 meteorological districts. In percentage terms, this works out to a figure of 75. What is disturbing is that out of the 390 districts, 177 had recorded only scanty rainfall, less than 60 per cent of the normal.

While as expected the northwest region had the worst experience, recording a departure of minus 52 per cent from the normal, even the northeast, which had been the only region to receive rainfall on a continuous basis this year, also recorded a departure of minus 11. Peninsular India recorded a departure of minus 36 per cent from the normal.

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