The Hindu Business Line : No monsoon revival soon; South benefits from `break monsoon'

THE prevailing weather conditions in the country bear the unmistakeable signature of break-monsoon with the Himalayan foothills-bound monsoon trough confining rainfall to just the Northeastern States and southeast peninsular India.

According to the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), the monsoon has continued to be in the break phase carried over from the week just ended.

Model predictions suggest no improvement in the situation and hence poor chances of revival of monsoon flow during next 3-4 days.

All India weekly rainfall activity was 17 per cent below normal during the week ending on August 24. Overall rainfall for the period from June 1-August 24 has gone down from two per cent below normal the previous week to three per cent below normal.

Rain for TN, Kerala: Saturday's upper air cyclonic circulation over Tamil Nadu and neighbourhood moved west and lay over Kerala and neighbourhood, moving further westwards.

Several parts of these States have received some good rainfall over the past two days. On Sunday, however, the rainfall activity was less intense.

The westward-bound cyclonic circulation is expected to be active for the next two days bringing scattered rain to these States for the next 24 hours.

The NCMRWF has issued a special advisory for farmers in the north and the northwest where drought-like situation has reportedly been prevailing in some areas over the past few days. Mainly dry weather is likely to prevail over for the next 3-4 days and standing crops, particularly paddy, will need to be irrigated.

Farmers in Punjab will do well to complete sowing of maize varieties (Paras, JH3459). In Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, sowing of the late maturing varieties of arhar (Bahar, Narendra Arhar-1, GT-100, Pusa-9) can be taken up.

Drought conditions: Farmers in West Rajasthan have been advised to reduce population of pearl millet by 20-25 per cent to cope up with what NCMRWF described as a drought-like situation.

In a recap of evolving weather, it said the north and northwest received very good rainfall during first three weeks of July due to interaction of monsoon systems with the eastward moving western disturbances.

Subsequently, most parts of plains of the northwest received deficient to scanty rainfall. This caused moisture stress to develop in various standing crops. The district-wise cumulative rainfall distribution in these sub-divisions shows that many are in deficient to scanty categories. No significant change is seen in weather conditions during next week, which could leading to further deterioration of the situation in the region.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page