Seasonal rainfall short by 54 per cent : IMD

Mumbai, Jun 27 : The cumulative rainfall during the current southwest monsoon across the country was 54 per cent below the Long Period Average (LPA), with the precipitation between June one and 25 being only 56.4 mm, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Even as farmers were gazing the sky awaiting the monsoon to wet their farmlands, central parts of the country was the worst-affected with a shortfall of 60 per cent as they received only 34.8 mm of rainfall.

The Southern Peninsula saw a precipitation of 88.7 mm with the departure from the LPA being minus 29 per cent. The situation in northwest India and northeast India saw a shortfall of 50 and 55 per cent respectively, with rainfall received in northwest being 22.4 and that of northeast 127.7 mm.

On the current status of monsoon, the IMD said rainfall was excess/normal in six and deficient/scanty in 30 out of 36 meteorological sub-divisions.

The monsoon, which took a break for more than a week after keeping up its date with the Kerala coast, has now further advanced into most parts of Maharashtra (including Mumbai), southern parts of Gujarat, remaining parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, southern parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and some more parts of Orissa.