170% excess rain this month

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

Kerala received almost 170 per cent more monsoon rains than normal this month till August 17 and 42 per cent excess in the entire June-September season to date.

The continued “exceptional and unprecedented” heavy rainfall in catchment areas compelled the authorities resort to “heavy releases downstream into the rivers —resulting in overflowing of all river banks,” says the IMD.

The last time the coastal state saw rains higher than this was in 1931 when it received 175 per cent excess rains according to IMD’s 143-year-old record since 1875, said IMD’s Additional Director General Mrityunjay Mohapatra. “Rains during the entire monsoon season in the state (between June 1 to August 19) have been “exceptionally high and totally unprecedented”, he says.

Kerala has so far received 2,346.6 mm against normal of 1,649.5 mm — above normal by 42 per cent — the highest in Idukki (92 per cent above normal) and Palakkad (72 per cent above normal). Between August 1 and 19 it received 758.6 mm rains against a normal of 287.6 mm. Rains in June and July were 15 per cent and 18 per cent above the normal, respectively. However, the exceptionally high increase in intensity between August 8 and August 16 took everyone by surprise. “Due to the above normal rains till July-end, all of major 35 odd reservoirs storage was close to the full reservoir level with no buffer storage to accommodate heavy inflows from August 10.

“Continued exceptional heavy rainfall in August (with 170 per cent above normal so far) in the catchment areas had compelled the authorities to resort to heavy releases downstream into the rivers. Such a scenario that continued for almost a week caused overflowing of all river banks leading to widespread flooding almost all over the state,” the IMD said.

Mohapatra assured that rain activity would come down in the next five days.

According to Skymet, orography plays a key role in the quantum of rains in Kerala with a stretch of 450 km of north-south orientation with sea shore on one side and mountain range on the other. In 2014, which was a drought year, Kerala received 6 per cent surplus and during “normal rain” year of 2016, it witnessed a drought and 34 per cent deficiency, it said.

However, environmentalists assert side effects of climate change can no longer be ignored. “Around the world the extreme weather events have increased. Climate change impacts are full blown and, on top of it, there are many man-made causes,” said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, Centre for Science and Environment.