Non-seasonal rainfall during the monsoon transition period from South-West to North-East has so far delivered a surplus of 36 per cent for the country, led by massive individual gains in three of four homogenous geographical regions.

North-West India led the pack with a runaway surplus of 135 per cent aided by some spectacular and ongoing performance, followed at some distance one closely after the other by the South Peninsula (36 per cent) and Central India (35 per cent).

Parts of North-East India and coastal Andhra Pradesh, the only other places elsewhere in the the country, were the only exceptions to an otherwise clean sweep of “normal” to “excess” to “large excess” rainfall delivered, even with some severe collateral damage as witnessed in flood and landslide-hit Kerala.

Reservoirs opened in Kerala

This is even as the south Peninsula is awaiting the arrival of North-East monsoon and the expected simultaneous exit of predecessor South-West monsoon, whose tail has lashed parts of the country with a ferocity not witnessed in the recent past as evidenced in Kerala and neighbourhood.

Tuesday also saw Kerala opening a some of its largest reservoirs after water levels rose to threatening levels ahead of the North-East monsoon. These included Idukki and Idamalayar, first and second largest reservoirs and both housed in the hilly terrain of Idukki district, besides a number of other smaller reservoirs.

Seasonal easterlies establishing over the Bay of Bengal interacted with land-based low-pressure areas/remnants over North-West and East India triggering some of the heaviest rain over Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday in a near-repeat of the severe weather panning out over extreme south a day ago.

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