India is experiencing 57% below-average rainfall in the first week of June, according to data from the India Meteorological Department. The delay of the monsoon’s onset over the southern coast due to a cyclone has been cited as a cause for the lack of rainfall.
During the first week of June, India received just 9.9mm of rainfall compared to the usual 23.1mm. The monsoon is critical to the country’s $3tn economy as it delivers almost 70% of the rainfall required for farming and to recharge reservoirs and aquifers.
The southern state of Kerala usually experiences rainfall around June 1 with the rest of India experiencing rain by mid-July. This year, the IMD predicted rainfall to occur on June 4 but the monsoon is yet to arrive.
A senior IMD official has suggested that the formation of the very severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy in the Arabian Sea has been affecting monsoon onset. He added that conditions are becoming favourable for monsoon onset over Kerala in the next two days.
The planting of crops such as rice, cotton, corn, soybean, and sugar cane could be delayed as nearly half of India’s farmland, with no irrigation cover, relies on June-September rainfall.
India’s weather office has forecast below-average rainfall for June but the IMD has forecast an average amount despite the possibility of the El Nino weather phenomenon.
