Meteorological Department estimates better than normal Monsoon in 2024
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday that this time the monsoon will be better than normal from June to September. The Meteorological Department (IMD) considers rainfall between 104 to 110 percent as better than normal. This is a good sign for the crops.
IMD said that 106% i.e. 87 cm rainfall may occur in 2024. The Long Period Average (LPA) for the 4-month monsoon season is 868.6 millimeters i.e. 86.86 centimeters. That means there should be this much total rainfall in the monsoon season.
Earlier on March 9, private weather agency Skymet had released its forecast. The agency had said that this time the monsoon will be normal. This means that in the four months from June to September, rainfall can be between 96 to 104%.
Last year IMD had predicted 96% rainfall. However, during that period 2% less rainfall i.e. 94% was recorded than expected. Monsoon usually arrives in India around June 1 via Kerala. After 4 months of rain i.e. at the end of September, it returns via Rajasthan.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Central Government updated the Long Period Average (LPA) of normal rainfall in the country for the year 2022. According to this, 87 cm rainfall is considered normal. In 2018 it was 88 centimeters. A fluctuation of 4 percent in LPA is considered normal.
Last year there was 48 mm less rainfall in monsoon
Last year i.e. in 2023, the departure of monsoon started from 25th September and by 30th September it had left entire Punjab, Haryana, Delhi along with Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
According to IMD, there was 820 mm rainfall in 2023. Normally there is 868.6 mm rainfall i.e. last year there was 48 mm less rainfall. Before this, there had been normal or excess rainfall monsoon for 4 consecutive years.
