This
monsoon, it didn't rain, it just poured
NEW
DELHI: Drought, what’s that? Dancing delightedly in a deluge of downpour
this season, Delhi-ites have long consigned bad memories of last year’s
parched earth six feet under, or even well below.
That
would be good news in itself if you ran a government in the
UT slated to face elections soon, and if civic facilities didn’t crash
down altogether. It rained so much this July, in fact, that not only
was the normal July level of rain pulverised the month that just went
by, but a 100 year record in rainfall for the entire monsoon season,
which lasts up to mid September, was broken. And the Met Department
isn’t even talking about the rest of the monsoon season up to mid
next month, for which they have forecast rain, much more rain. “Going
by general synoptic suggestions, it its quite representative,” IMD
officials hold. Put that in your pipe, and smoke it. With pleasure.
Normal
rainfall level for the agriculturally sensitive month of July in Delhi
is 225.9 mm. This July, though, the UT got a whopping, hold your breath,
632.2 mm of rain. That’s not even taking into account the 164.2 mm
of rain in June, which itself is way, way above the normal level of
55 mm. Three times over, almost.
Since
the normal rainfall in the entire monsoon season for Delhi is around
645.7 mm, July’s record rainfall compares in superlative adjectives
with it. Compare this July’s excellent rainfall record with that of
monsoon 2002-03. That bad year saw only 7.2 mm of rainfall, although,
in it wasn’t so bad in June. In the last 10 years, the only time this
July’s record rainfall got any sort of competition, however watered
down, was in 1993, when it rained 348.9 mm. In 2000, the rainfall
level stood at 295.0 mm. In 1994, it rained 181.6 mm. In 1995, July
had a far lower 46.0 mm, although rainfall in August and September
that year made up somewhat for the shortfall in rain for the entire
season. In 1997, July ranked at 180.4 mm, in 1998, it rose to 138.1
mm, in 1999, the level was at 114.1 mm and in 2001, it was 129.7 mm.
The
higher rainfall means higher ground water level and, given the prolonged
drought in neighbouring Rajasthan, that could impact positively on
crop production. And, naturally, lifestyle in the metro.
TIMES
NEWS NETWORK
[ SATURDAY, AUGUST
02, 2003 06:39:17 AM ]
