July has kept its monsoon promise to Kerala, bringing normal rainfall and also making some amends for the poor rainfall received in June.
The monsoon rainfall was 44 per cent deficient for the State at the end of June. The wet spell that began on July 10 and continued into the last week of the month helped bring down the rainfall deficit to 19 per cent as on July 30.
The India Meteorological Centre (IMD) considers up to 20 per cent downward departure from long-period average rainfall as ‘normal rainfall’. Although Kerala, at this stage of the monsoon, could thus be regarded as having received normal rainfall, the situation in some of the districts is worrying. According to the latest weekly rainfall report by the meteorology centre here, monsoon rainfall was 54 per cent deficient in Thiruvananthapuram on July 30, 37 per cent deficient in Kasaragod, 36 per cent in Alappuzha, 33 per cent in Kollam, and 32 per cent in Thrissur. Idukki, which holds nearly half of the State’s hydel reservoir capacity is only four per cent deficient in rainfall when compared to the long-period average rainfall from June 1 to July 30. Pathanamthitta, the next important district from the perspective of hydel reservoir capacity, is 22 per cent deficient in rainfall.
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Rainfall deficiency is six per cent for Malappuram, 13 per cent for Ernakulam and Wayanad, 15 per cent for Kannur and Kozhikode, 16 per cent for Palakkad, and 20 per cent for Kottayam.