India Meteorological Department Department (IMD) recognizes October to December as the period for Northeast monsoon. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty/File) India Meteorological Department Department (IMD) recognizes October to December as the period for Northeast monsoon. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty/File)

2019 was a year of bountiful rain. The year’s Northeast monsoon ended on a high, with the season’s total rainfall recorded remaining 30 per cent surplus.

India Meteorological Department Department (IMD) recognizes October to December as the period for Northeast monsoon.

During this period, where rainfall is experienced over southern states, mainly over Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh along with some parts of Telangana and Karnataka. In areas around Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and along the northeast, precipitation during this period reported is either in the form of rainfall or snowfall.

As the Southwest monsoon adamantly lingered on from its withdrawal, there was a delay for the onset of the winter monsoon. Despite which, all sub-divisions in the southern peninsula received normal or above normal rainfall during the three months. Notably, IMD officials stated that the rainfall during these three months was evenly distributed, both spatially and temporally, with every week recording normal rainfall throughout the season.

Explained India’s 2 monsoons The northeast monsoon, or winter monsoon, blows from land to sea, whereas south-west monsoon, or summer monsoon, blows from sea to land after crossing the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal. The southwest monsoon brings most of the rainfall in the country - approximately 75 per cent of India’s annual rainfall.

Recording significantly large amounts of rain, it was an extremely wet season for Lakshdweep (172 per cent) and Karnataka (70 per cent) in particular while 27 per cent excess rainfall was recorded over Kerala and Mahe, till December end. IMD’s rainfall data for the season suggests that Tamil Nadu (1 per cent), Pudducherry (-17 per cent), Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (-8 per cent) received normal rainfall.

The reservoir situation in all these too is appreciable, with 36 reservoirs here holding a collective stock amounting 40.37 Billion Cubic Metre (BCM), which was 76 per cent of the total capacity of all these dams, stated the Live Storage Status of Reservoirs issued by Central Water Commission dated December 26, 2019. Last year this time, the dams here stocked water equivalent to 46 per cent of the total capacity.

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