Odisha gets 9.9% surplus rainfall during this monsoon

Bhubaneswar: With good rainfall in the months of August and September, Odisha has received 9.9 per cent surplus rainfall during the monsoon (June –September) this year.

The average cumulative rainfall of the state from 1st June to 30th September has registered a surplus of 9.9%.

While the cumulative rainfall in the State was deficient by 31.5% and 9.0% respectively in June and July, the rainfall in August and September remained surplus by 24.5% and 53.7% respectively.

During the current year, the advance of the South-West Monsoon was delayed. Against normal timing of 2nd week of June for arrival in Odisha, the South-West Monsoon advanced into Odisha on 21st June and covered 16 coastal, adjoining and southern districts in full and parts of 6 other districts.

The entire Odisha was covered on 22nd June. However, the rainfall remained quite inadequate in most parts of the State during the last week of June and first three and half weeks of July delaying agricultural activities.

Then, good rainfall was received towards the end of July and the trend continued in the months of August and September.

Due to heavy rainfall, flood and severe waterlogging situations were experienced in many Southern and Western districts of Odisha at least in 3 spells-from 27th July to 5th August, 6th August to 11th August and 12th August to 16th August.

The district-wise cumulative rainfall data for the period from 1st June to 30th September indicates that Malkanagiri district received the highest rainfall of 1888.6 mm (31.9% surplus) and Gajapati district received the lowest rainfall of 945.8 mm (2.6% surplus).

As many as 10 districts namely Koraput, Kalahandi, Jharsuguda, Puri, Malkanagiri, Balangir, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Subarnapur and Cuttack received surplus rainfall of more than 19% during the period from 1st June to 30th September.

19 districts which received normal rainfall (+ 19% to – 19%) during the same period are Bargarh, Khordha, Nayagarh, Nawarangpur, Rayagada, Jagatsinghpur, Gajapati, Jajpur, Sambalpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Dhenkanal, Nuapada, Boudh, Balasore, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj and Angul.

Rainfall in Deogarh district remained deficit between 19% & 39% during the period.

The state experienced a total of 50.2 rainy days during June to September 2019 against the normal average of 52.4 rainy days. There were 7.4 rainy days in June, 13.7 rainy days in July, 14.6 rainy days in August and 14.5 rainy days in September.

Going by the Block-wise rainfall data, 103 number of Blocks have received surplus rainfall, 169 Blocks received normal rainfall, 40 Blocks received deficit rainfall and 2 Blocks received severe deficit rainfall during these 4 months June-July-August-September cumulatively.

Two Blocks which have experienced severe deficit rainfall are Champua and Jhumpura in Keonjhar district.