NEW DELHI: While the rest of India had an above-normal monsoon this year, the national capital recorded a 38 per cent deficiency in rains, receiving the lowest rainfall since 2014, according to the India Meteorological Department.
Delhi recorded 404.1 mm rainfall from June 1 to September 30, against the 30-year average of 648.9 mm, an IMD official said.
The country overall had an “above-normal” monsoon, receiving 10 per cent more rainfall than usual. The monsoon season officially begins on June 1 and ends on September 30.
In June this year, Delhi recorded just 11.2 mm rainfall against the normal of 65.5 mm. The next month, it recorded 210.4 mm of rainfall against the mean of 276.1 mm.
August was also relatively dry, with only 119.6 mm precipitation occurring against the average of 247.7 mm. The city recorded 74.1 mm rainfall against the normal of 125.1 mm in September.
Explaining why Delhi received less rainfall this year, Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, Meteorology And Climate Change of Skymet Weather Services, said the weather systems that originated in the Bay of Bengal moved west, deviating from their usual northwestward path.
That’s why central India saw an increase in rainfall and Indo-Gangetic plains recorded a decline, he said.
“No significant weather system developed in the Arabian Sea this year. The two cyclones that formed in its northern part, ‘Hikka’ and ‘Vayu’, moved towards Oman,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)