North’s rain gain is east’s loss
New Delhi, July 20: A torrential downpour
that washed Delhi today and the rainfall that devastated Uttarakhand
last month could be portents of shifts in the monsoon’s behaviour that
have also shown up as rainfall deficits in eastern India, scientists
say.
Eastern India is
the only zone among the country’s four meteorological regions that has
as a whole experienced deficit rainfall since the monsoon season started
this year, while the traditionally arid northwest is unusually wet.
Bengal’s Gangetic
plains have had rainfall 30 per cent below the expected average so far,
delaying preparation of paddy seedbeds.
While
Uttarakhand’s extreme event on June 16-17 may explain its 74 per cent
excess rainfall, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and even eastern Rajasthan have
recorded high above-average figures.
“India’s north
appears to be stealing rain from the east,” said Madhavan Rajeevan, a
senior atmospheric scientist and programme director at the National
Monsoon Mission, a research initiative launched last year by the Union
earth sciences ministry.
While the
movements of moisture-bearing winds and low-pressure systems may explain
the heavy rain in the north, scientists say they are intrigued by
recent trends pointing to persistent rainfall deficits in the east.
“We’ve seen rain
deficits in parts of the east and Northeast over the past five years but
we don’t fully understand the underlying mechanisms or even whether
this is a long-term trend,” Rajeevan said. “We’ll need more
observations, more research.”
Full article is here
Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Darjeeling district
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