India will witness below-normal monsoon rainfall in June this year, the weather department has said.
In an update on the arrival of monsoons in the country, the India Meteorological Department said, "The average June rainfall for the country as a whole is most likely to be below normal, i.e. less than 92 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA)."
Parts of India have been reeling under an intense heatwave for the past few months.
The country has received 20 per cent deficient rains since the southwest monsoon set in over Kerala on May 30, with the rain-bearing system making no significant progress between June 12 and 18, the weather department said.
However, conditions are now favourable for further advancement of the monsoon into parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, coastal Andhra Pradesh, northwest Bay of Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand over the next three to four days, it said.
India received 64.5 mm of rainfall between June 1 and 18 which is 20 per cent less than the long-period average (LPA) of 80.6 mm, it said.
Since June 1, northwest India has recorded 10.2 mm of rainfall (70 per cent less than normal), central India 50.5 mm (31 per cent less than normal), the south peninsula 106.6 mm (16 per cent more than normal), and east and northeast India 146.7 mm (15 per cent less than normal).
Meanwhile, normal to above-normal rainfall was expected in most areas of the southern peninsula and some parts of northeast India, while below-normal rainfall is anticipated in many areas of northwest and adjoining central India, as well as some parts of northeast India.
The IMD said in a May-end presser that the country could see above-normal rainfall in the four-month monsoon season (June to September) with cumulative rainfall estimated at 106 per cent of the LPA of 87 cm.
The monsoon is critical for India's agricultural landscape, with 52 per cent of the net cultivated area relying on it. It is also crucial for replenishing reservoirs critical for drinking water and power generation.
June and July are considered the most important monsoon months for agriculture because most of the sowing for the Kharif crop takes place during this period.
