Visakhapatnam/ Hyderabad: The joy of the approaching monsoon may be limited; the India Meteorological Department has said that the monthly rainfall over the peninsula is likely to be at 93 per cent, which is below normal. The Centre has already begun drawing up contingency plans to tackle the fallout of a deficient monsoon.
These forecasts are in line with the outlook of the World Meteorological Organisation that predicted mostly below-average rains in the country as well Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Professor Prasad, faculty member of Andhra University in meteorology, said that the El Nino weather pattern too may affect rainfall.
The El Nino is basically the warming of the surface waters of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean from the South American coast to the International Date Line. Analysis of long-term data suggests an inverse relationship between El Nino and southwest monsoon rainfall in India.
It is expected that while the southwest monsoon is likely to be deficient, the northeast monsoon, which occurs towards the year end, is likely to be more than normal in Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts in Telangana and coastal Andhra excepting Vizianagaram.
So far, the cumulative seasonal rainfall all over the country in the week from June 1 to June 8 was scanty. According to Met data, the rain was 44 per cent deficient across the country and 17 per cent deficient over the peninsula.
