The initial fear that southwest monsoon 2014 might turn out a deficit one for Kerala is fast turning wrong.
Carrying a 44 per cent rainfall deficit from June, the season got into a canter from around the middle of July and is virtually on a gallop now. According to the latest rainfall update of the meteorology centre here, the State is just three per cent deficit in monsoon rainfall as on August 6. This is as normal as it can get.
Against a long-period average of 1,476.7 mm of area-weighted rainfall for the period June 1 to August 6, the State actually got 1,437.1 mm of rainfall.
Importantly, Idukki district, which holds nearly 50 per cent of the State’s hydel reservoir capacity, received 13 per cent excess rainfall during the period.
As per the India Meteorological Department’s classification, a variation of up to 20 per cent from the long-period average rainfall either way is considered ‘normal rainfall.’
Ten districts can now be said to have received normal rainfall.
These districts are (departure from normal shown in brackets): Kannur (+1 per cent), Ernakulam (+8 per cent), Idukki (+13 per cent), Kottayam (0 per cent), Kozhikode (-4 per cent), Malappuram (+9 per cent), Palakkad (+6 per cent), Pathanamthitta (-5 per cent), Thrissur (-19 per cent) and Wayanad (-3 per cent).
The districts that are deficient in rainfall are: Alappuzha (by 20 per cent), Kasaragod (by 22 per cent), Kollam (by 20 per cent) and Thiruvananthapuram (by 40 per cent).
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here that the Cabinet had approved decisions taken at a meeting convened by him on Monday for flood relief, including free rations, doubling of funding for food provided in relief camps, and compensation for deaths and damage to houses.
