South West Monsoon withdraws completely from Gujarat; 76.69% of normal rain received

Ahmedabad: The south monsoon today completely withdrew from Gujarat.

A met bulletin said that withdrawal process of the South West monsoon from Gujarat was completed today. It had begun on September 29 from Kutch.

Like earlier seven years it has been delayed this year also.

The normal period for onset of South West Monsoon in Gujarat is September 15 and its starts from Kutch region and in a matter of few days it leaves all parts of the state. But since 2011 it is not happening on time.

The met bulletin today said that the monsoon has withdrawn from remaining parts of Gujarat. Notably the state remained deprived of around one fourth of its average rainfall this year. Gujarat has received only 76.69% of its average rain.

Kutch region has seen only 26.51% and two of its talukas have seen less than 10% with Lakhpat seeing as low as 3.44%. Rapar has seen 5.65%. The third such taluka (only three were in single digit figures) was Vav in Banaskantha district of North Gujarat with 5.56%. North Gujarat as a region has also seen only 48.06% rain so far.

East Central Gujarat has seen 71.55%, Saurashtra 72.93% and South Gujarat 96.45%. In percentage terms Gir Somnath with 139.85% was at the top while in actual amount term Valsad with 2271 mm was number one.

Last year the monsoon had arrived in Gujarat on June 12, three days before normal date of June 15 and the withdrawal had started from September 27, almost 12 days after the normal date. The total rainfall last year was more than 110%.

This year the monsoon had arrived almost a week late on June 22.

Meanwhile isolated places in the state had seen light rain today and some witnessed strong winds due to convective effect. By 6 pm Umergam in Valsad had seen the maximum of 10 mm while Kaprada in the same district saw 4 mm.

The met has despite the withdrawal of monsoon has predicted light to moderate rain at isolated places in Suarashtra and adjoining union territory of Diu and Daman in the coming few days.

DeshGujarat