2024-09-04 11:30:08
New Delhi: This year, India has received the highest rainfall in July-August in the last 30 years. The rainfall has been recorded 12% more than normal. However, rainfall has been decreasing in July-August for a long time, which is a matter of concern. This year, the average rainfall in July-August was 599.7 mm, which is the highest since 1994. In 1994, there was 645.9 mm rainfall. This figure is the second highest in the last 30 years.
Heaviest rainfall after 30 years
July and August are the rainiest months in India and are extremely important for sowing of Kharif crops. However, in recent decades, rainfall across the country during these two months has been less than the average of previous decades. From 1901 to 1994, there was more than 600 mm rainfall in July-August in 28 years. That is, on an average once every 3.4 years. However, the 600 mm mark has not been crossed even once in the last 30 years.
After many years, monsoon rains were 10% more than normal
Roxy Mathew Kole, climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said that in the last 20-30 years we have rarely seen a year where the monsoon has been 10% more than normal. In the last 30 years (1995-2024), the average rainfall in July-August has been 530.2 mm. This is much less than the average of the last 30 years. 543 mm of rain was recorded during 1965-1994, 587.1 mm in 1935-1964 and 559.3 mm in 1905-1934.
What is the reason for the change in the rainy season?
One reason given for this is that the monsoon behaves in a cyclical manner for 30-40 years. The last period of low rainfall started around the 1970s and before that there was a period of high rainfall. Cole says that it is believed that we are now entering a period of high rainfall. However, some experts believe that this concept worked well in the last century, but there may be problems in it in recent times. Cole said that we keep saying that we are coming out of the period of weak monsoon, but we have not seen any clear evidence of this yet. It has been a long period and we are still in decline.
Cole further says that there are some areas within the country which are showing a sharp decline in rainfall in recent decades and this may be related to climate change. This includes the Uttar Pradesh-Jharkhand belt and Kerala. Cole says that climate change patterns are becoming more regional. Earlier the decadal patterns were very clear. Now these patterns seem to be disrupted.