Incessant showers to be the new norm, indicate trends
If history is anything to go by, such heavy rainfall events could become the norm with each passing year
HYDERABAD: All it took for Telangana to be brought to its knees — with overflowing rivers, breached tanks and canals, floods across several districts, and a very visible threat to the existence of the Kadem dam in Nirmal district — was the southwest monsoon, making itself felt over the state in just one week and the clouds unloading copious amounts of rain across the 33 districts of the state.
If history is anything to go by, such heavy rainfall events could become the norm with each passing year. The measure of just how much rain Telangana has experienced in one week, between July 6 and July 13, has been described as ‘Large Excess’ over 32 districts, with one district — Jogulamba Gadwal — listed under the category of ‘Excess’ by the meteorologists at the Telangana state development planning society (TSDPS).
Among districts that received ‘large excess’ rain are Adilabad, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial, and Nirmal, along with the rest of the north Telangana districts of Nizamabad, Jagitial, Rajanna Sircilla, Karimnagar, Peddapalli, and Kamareddy. According to TSDPS rainfall data, these large excesses ranged from 130 per cent above normal, in Rajanna Siricilla, to 1,338 per cent more than what the district usually experiences, as of Thursday.
Typically, northern and eastern Telangana districts receive the highest amounts of rainfall during the southwest monsoon that starts in June, with the rain increasing during July and then tapering off during August and September, as the southwest monsoon begins to withdraw from India.
According to TSDPS, the number of wet spells — minimum rainfall of more than 2.5 mm a day for more than five days, and a cumulative rainfall of more than 100 mm for the identified periods — in its study of rainfall patterns from 2004 to 2020 show an increasing trend of both heavy, and very heavy rainfall days in the state. Adilabad, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Nirmal, Kamareddy, Jagtial and Mancherial districts received higher rainfall, compared to districts of southern Telangana.
The TSDPS also found that heavy rainfall events were also noted over eastern districts of Mulugu, Jayashankar Bhupalapalli, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Khammam and Warangal Rural in the preceding monsoons.