Of the 36 meteorological divisions in India, 25 (70%) received less rain during the South West monsoon in 2018 than the average precipitation in the last 118 years.
There is wide variation in the average rainfall across geographical divisions. The graphic below compares South West Monsoon rainfall data for all divisions historically to find where their measures for 2016, 2017 and 2018 are placed.
The rainfall for each division is plotted in a row. Each circle represents the rainfall in a year. The years 1901 to 2015 are in grey; 2016 & 2017 are in blue; and 2018 in red. The dash (|) denotes the average rainfall of each division.
^ Karn. = Karnataka; Raja. = Rajasthan; Maha. = Maharashtra; visit https://bit.ly/2sNJ30A for detailed rainfall subdivisions map
For the interactive visualisation, click here
Digging deeper
1. Rayalaseema had its fourth worst monsoon in 2018 (252 mm rain), since 1901, and 95% of mandals in the region were declared drought-hit
2. In June & July 2018, it rained above par in Marathwada. But, it had the lowest rainfall for any September (31 mm) since 1901, leading to crop failure; 64 tehsils were declared drought-hit in October 2018
3. Saurashtra & Kutch (316 mm) and the rest of Gujarat (696 mm) divisions had 32% and 21% lower rainfall respectively in 2018 than the average. Close to 3,300 villages were declared droughthit in Dec. 2018
4. Jharkhand (789 mm) and Bihar (771 mm) had their fifth and tenth lowest monsoon rains respectively since 1901. More than 40% blocks in both States were declared drought-hit
5. Karnataka’s northern division had its 13th worst monsoon since 1901. 88.6% area of the State was declared drought-hit, as the other two divisions, coastal and south, had marginally better monsoons than the average
6. The Northeast region had a poor monsoon season. Arunachal Pradesh received 1,191 mm during the 2018 monsoon, its seventh worst season since 1901. *Divisions Northeast 1 (Assam and Meghalaya) and Northeast 2 (Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram) received the 6th and 7th worst monsoons since 1901 respectively
