PANJIM: The South-west monsoon, which has been below normal this year, on Friday crossed the 100 inch mark for the season.
The 2021 season that began from June 1, with actual onset of monsoon over Goa on June 5, has so far recorded 100.48 inches (2552.2mm) of rainfall which is below the normal average of 103.37 inches (2,625.6mm) for the State.
Despite having active monsoon currents in the first two months of the season – June and July – which together recorded over 87 inches of rain, rainfall activity weakened in August. The current month has received just 12.57 inches of rains so far. The State had crossed 50 inches of rains on July 13.
IMD Goa in-charge Rahul explained that one of the climatological features associated with the monsoon is called the monsoon trough, which comes along a line on pressure charts across India starting North West to North Bay of Bengal. He said when this line shifts to its north and towards the Himalayas, the monsoon activity becomes comparatively weaker.
“Throughout the month of August, on majority of the days, the trough was to the North of its normal position,” he explained.
Rahul also said that the monsoon becomes active and vigorous over Goa when circulations or low pressure areas develop over the East coast. “There were only one or two weak systems this August compared to the past two years. Any strong circulations over Konkan too were not present this August,” he said.
Rainfall activity is expected to pick up in the coming days with the formation of a low-pressure area off South Odisha-north Andhra Pradesh coasts and an offshore trough at mean sea level from Karnataka coast to Kerala.
