Eastern India bore the brunt of prolonged heat waves in June 2023: IMD
Overall, the country has received 10 per cent less than its normal rainfall for the month of June. Prolonged heat waves were observed for 11-19 days, as against a normal of 2-4 days in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, etc.
गाँव कनेक्शन 5 July 2023 2:02 PM GMT
The country has received 10 per cent less than its normal rainfall for the month of June, leading to distress.
The monsoon has covered the entire country, but the first month of this year’s southwest monsoon season, i.e. June 2023, has been that of extremes. Whereas the eastern part of the country had prolonged heat waves last month, northeastern states and the western region had extremely heavy rainfall events, as noted in the ‘Climate Summary of the month June 2023’ released by India Meteorological Department (IMD) yesterday, on July 4.
Overall, the country has received 10 per cent less than its normal rainfall for the month of June, leading to distress among farmers whose sowing of kharif crops has been delayed.
As per the IMD, eastern parts of India were worst affected in June, with significantly higher than the normal heat wave days observed over the region. Heatwaves were observed for 11-19 days (normals are 2-4 days) over some areas mainly covering West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, followed by 7-9 days over adjoining central parts of India which covered East Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha.
Heat wave to severe heat wave was observed in almost all dates for the period of June 1 to June 22 over Bihar, June 1 to June 18 over West Bengal, and June 12 to June 21 over East Uttar Pradesh.
Last month, a number of deaths and hospitalisations were reported in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during the extreme heat conditions. Whereas the government denied any link between these deaths and the prevailing heat conditions, Gaon Connection had travelled to Ballia and Deoria districts in UP, where deaths were reported, and met family members of deceased people who had blamed the heat.
Whereas these states reported prolonged heat waves in June months, in northwest and adjoining central parts of India, it was lower than normal with almost no occurrences of any heat wave conditions over Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and Gujarat state.
South West Monsoon 2023
The southwest monsoon advanced into Andaman Sea and southern parts of Bay of Bengal on May 19 this year against the normal date of May 22.
The southwest monsoon set in over south Kerala and south Tamil Nadu on June 8 against the normal date of June 1. By June 28, it had covered most parts of the country except over some parts of north Rajasthan and adjoining areas of southwest Haryana and Punjab.
It gradually advanced thereafter and covered the entire country on July 2, against the normal date of July 8 (six days before the normal date of covering the entire India), notes the IMD in its recent summary.
Rainfall
June 2023 witnessed extremely heavy rainfall events (> 204.4 mm of rainfall) mainly over Assam & Meghalaya, Sub Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim, South Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Uttar Pradesh, East Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Konkan Goa.
Rainfall over the homogeneous region of south peninsular India (88.6 mm) was lowest since 1901. The previous lowest rainfall value was 90.7mm observed in 1976. Thus, South Peninsula India reported a rainfall departure of minus 45 per cent last month.
In sharp contrast, the Northwest India region had 42 per cent beyond normal rainfall in the month of June this year.
Out of total 1,064 stations, 53 stations reported extremely heavy rainfall (> 204.4 mm), 284 stations reported very heavy rainfall (115.6 to 204.4 mm) and 727 stations reported heavy rainfall (64.5 to 115.5 mm of rainfall) during June month.
Temperatures
IMD’s summary shows that warmer than normal temperatures (both for maximum and minimum temperatures) were observed over the country as a whole during many days in June 2023 and it was mainly during June 5-24.
Maximum temperature was above normal by 4.4 degree C mainly over most parts of East & Northeast India, South Peninsular India, some parts Northwest India and Central India.
Overall in India during June, the mean temperature is the seventh highest (29.99 ºC with an anomaly of 0.75 ºC) since 1901.
