If the South-West monsoon ended up with a surplus of nine per cent during June-September, the post-monsoon (October 1 to 22) has done ‘one’ better posting a surplus of 10 per cent till Thursday, though the core Tamil Nadu belt is in deficit (-33 per cent) while Puducherry (-10 per cent) is slightly better off.
There are 36 reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission in the Southern Region (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu). The total live storage as on Thursday is 88 per cent (against 87 per cent of last year and 69 per cent in 10-year average storage).
North-East monsoon ‘bonus’
The deficit is mainly because of the delay in the arrival of the North-East monsoon after the South-West monsoon delivered a surplus over both these regions and delayed its withdrawal (beyond normal October 15). India Meteorological Department (IMD) expects the North-East monsoon to arrive by the month-end.
Also read: Weather: North-East monsoon may set in after October 28
The post-monsoon surpluses were showered both over Central India and the South Peninsula thanks to low-pressure area-turned depressions cutting their way through and across Peninsular India and later along the East Coast of India, as the current one has been tracking during the past two days.
Surplus in transition phase
Telangana (127 per cent); Odisha (86 per cent); Maharashtra (80 per cent); Chhattisgarh (77 per cent); and Gujarat (67 per cent) shared the post-monsoon spoils in that order. Karnataka came up with 58 per cent; Goa and Andhra Pradesh, 44 per cent each. Kerala (-6 per cent) is in normal category.
Also read: As Krishna, Godavari reservoir network brims over, 4,300 TMC discharged downstream
North-West India, from where the South-West monsoon had withdrawing before getting stuck over West and Central India, drew mostly a blank in terms of rainfall during the period under reference (October 1 to 22). Night temperatures fell here because of lack of rain-generating clouds.
Except Jharkhand, Sikkim, Tripura, Nagaland and Assam, most of the East and North-East too have fallen in the deficit list though the incoming depression from the Bay of Bengal and its landfall on Friday is expected to remedy the situation to some extent.
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