Context:

• In a year marked by El Niño conditions, the southwest monsoon in India remained subdued, resulting in “below-average” cumulative rainfall, as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD) estimates.

Spatial Distribution of Rainfall:

• Northwest India recorded 593 mm of rainfall compared to a long-period average of 587.6 mm. 
• Central India, where agriculture predominantly relies on monsoon rains, recorded 981.7 mm against a normal of 978 mm. 
• The South Peninsula experienced an eight percent deficit.
• Rainfall across the country as a whole stood at 91 percent of LPA in June, 113 percent in July, 64 percent in August, and 113 percent in September.
• The IMD reported that east and northeast India recorded 1,115 mm of rainfall against a normal of 1,367.3 mm, which translates to an 18 percent deficit.

Meteorological Subdivisions:

• Out of the 36 meteorological subdivisions, three (constituting 9 percent of the total area) received excess rainfall, 26 received normal rainfall (covering 73 percent of the total area), and seven received deficient rainfall. 
• The seven subdivisions with deficient rainfall are:
  • Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, East UP, South Interior Karnataka, and Kerala.

Normal Rainfall:

• Rainfall activity ranging between 96 percent and 104 percent of the LPA is defined as normal.
• The 2023 monsoon season concluded with 94.4 percent cumulative rainfall, which is “near normal”.
• Normal rainfall is critical for India’s agricultural landscape, with 52 percent of the net cultivated area relying on it. 
• According to the weather department, some “positive factors” mitigated some of the deficiency caused by El Niño conditions this year, which ended up providing “near normal” precipitation. 
  • These factors included the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO)

News Source: Livemint