As we come to the halfway mark of Northeast Monsoon 2016 it is time to do a check on how things are. There would be a lot of raised eyebrows when we say half point considering we are only 5 days into November and the onset of Northeast Monsoon 2016 happened only a week back exactly last Sunday. Yes indeed we are just into November and the season is still to pick up pace completely. But a brief background on why it is the halfway point for the season.
IMD considers October 1st to December 31st as Northeast Monsoon for the seasonal rainfall statistics. The October – December quarter the long term average seasonal rainfall for Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry is 442 mm. The Longterm Average for the period October 1st to November 5th as maintained by IMD is 220.8 mm which is just short of completing 50% of the rainfall expected for the season. Hence going by calendar we are no way near halfway point but as far as rainfall pattern for the season goes we have reached the halfway point.
In a nation obsessed with cricket it could be an interesting tidbit to provide a Daily Score Card for Northeast Monsoon 2016 giving a quick recap and the required rainfall for the season to end normal. The season so far has given only 1/5th of the total rainfall expected during October – December period though we should have by this time got 50% of our total rains.
If we have to use the cricketing analogy the required daily rainfall rate for the remainder of the season is close to 3 times at the rate at which we are scoring currently. If one were to compare with the long term average rate for the rest of the season it will be roughly at 60% higher than normal.