Southwest Monsoon withdraws from Tripura with entire NE region

After four month long Southwest Monsoon has withdrawn from Tripura along with other parts Northeast India on Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The IMD, on September 30, had said that rainfall over the country, as a whole, during the Monsoon season (June to September), was 94 per cent of its long period average.

Among the four IMD’s regions across the country, the Northeast region has recorded 82 per cent rain in this year’s Monsoon period – June to September.

An IMD official said that normally the four-month long Southwest Monsoon departs from the Northeast 10 days or two weeks after the withdrawal of the Monsoon from most parts of the country.

According to the IMD data, Assam, Manipur, and Mizoram, till September 30, witnessed deficient rainfall while five other Northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Tripura -- have experienced normal rains since the Southwest Monsoon began in June.

There are four meteorological sub-divisions in the Northeastern region -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam-Meghalaya, Nagaland-Manipur-Mizoram-Tripura, and Sikkim and parts of West Bengal.

In Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura, there is 12 percent to 16 percent deficient rainfall while in Sikkim, 5 percent excess rains have been recorded till September 30 since June. As per the IMD norms, up to 19 per cent deficient or excess rainfall is categorised as normal.

The IMD data revealed that till September 30, in Manipur, there is 46 per cent deficiency, in Mizoram, the shortage of rainfall has been recorded at 28 per cent, while Assam recorded 20 per cent deficit monsoon rains since June.

According to IMD data, from October 1 to September 17, Manipur recorded a large deficit (61 percent) while Nagaland (40 percent), Mizoram (41 per cent) and Tripura (30 percent) recorded shortage of rainfall compared to the normal rainfall during this period. Arunachal Pradesh (29 percent) and Assam (32 percent) recorded excess rainfall and Sikkim (159 per cent) registered large excess rainfall during the past 17 days (October 1-17).