Two days of rain halve Andhra Pradesh’s monsoon deficit from 43% to 22%

Andhra Pradesh’s Southwest Monsoon (June to September) rainfall deficit has come down from 43% on September 15 to 22% on September 25, after the deep depression over the Bay of Bengal brought heavy rain to the coast on September 23 and 24, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

At 43% A.P. was the third most rain-deficient State in the country until September 15, after Meghalaya at 59% and Manipur at 44%. It had recorded only 251.1 mm against the normal of 437.6 mm in a season shaped by El Niño. Experts had pointed out that this was the second time since 1904 that the State had recorded such a steep rainfall gap; 1904 was a drought year with a deficit of 44.19%.

Some experts had felt it would be difficult for the deficit to fall below 35%; O.P. Sreejith, an IMD-Pune scientist, had told The Hindu on September 17 that it would stay around 40%. But the deep depression crossed the coast near Kalingapatnam and the State’s position changed within days. Among the southern States A.P. was the worst hit until September 15. Now it stands behind Puducherry, Karnataka and Keralam.

The rain recorded in a few coastal districts on September 23 and 24, when the deep depression crossed the coast, was so heavy that it made up for the deficit recorded in the region in the first three months of the Southwest Monsoon.

The deficit has come down in all the districts of north coastal A.P., and the difference is stark in Visakhapatnam district, which had recorded a 53.2% deficit, the highest among its neighbouring districts, until September 21. The district received only 248.2 mm against the season’s normal of 530.9 mm during this period.

Between September 22 and 26, the district received 291.9 mm against the normal of 29.3 mm for those days. As of September 26, the district’s deficit stands at 3.6%, a steep fall from 53.2% earlier this week.

From September 21 to 26, Vizianagaram district’s deficit fell from 37.2% to 10.2%, Srikakulam district’s from 38.7% to 7%, Kakinada’s from 44.8% to 13.7%, Alluri Sitharama Raju district’s from 42.3% to 14.1%, Parvathipuram Manyam district’s from 37.5% to 19.2% and Anakapalli’s from 41.2% to 17%, according to the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) and the A.P. State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA).

The districts of Guntur, NTR, Krishna, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema, East and West Godavari also recorded a fall in their deficits. But all eight districts of Rayalaseema continue to record steep deficits. The highest in the region, 62.5%, was recorded in Annamayya district.

S. Karunasagar, Senior Scientist, IMD-Amaravati, said that while it was a good thing that the deficit had come down, the State still faced the possibility of drought conditions, because the deficit was likely to widen again in the coming months and Rayalaseema had not benefited much from the recent spell of rain.