City heading for driest monsoon in three decades

With no rain in sight this month, the city is heading towards its driest monsoon in past three decades. According to the Meteorological Centre, Chandigarh, in this monsoon season the city has got just 223.1 mm rain, which is 466.8 mm deficient compared to the normal.

However as per the South-West Monsoon Report, by the end of August the city should have received around 690 mm rain.

According to Meteorological Centre Chandigarh, it was in 1987 when similar weather conditions prevailed over the city with deficit rainfall put at 67%.

This year, the deficit has matched that figure. Among all months, August has been the worst-hit with the city receiving just 30.9 mm rain.

According to the annual South-West Monsoon Report, 287mm is considered normal rain in the city for August.

Met centre forecast says that in the coming days there is likely to be rain but it will not be sufficient to come out of the dry spell. Besides August, June was also deficient with the city receiving 36.8 mm rain fall.

However, normal rain fall in June is considered 120mm. Rainfall was 35% deficient in July, when Chandigarh received only 182.7 mm against the normal monthly rainfall of 282.4 mm. The monsoon season concludes on September 30 every year.