India is expected to receive normal amount of monsoon rains in 2023, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday, May 26. As per the weather department forecast, the monsoon season is likely to produce 96 per cent of normal rainfall, a good indication for the agrarian economy that is witnessing a scorching summer amid the likely emergence of the El Nino weather conditions.
Announcing the stage-2 long range forecast for Southwest Monsoon 2023, the weather department said rainfall during the June-September period is likely to be 96 per cent of the long-term average, with an error margin of +/-4 percent of the long period average.
It would be the fifth straight year of normal or above normal summer rains that is expected to boost agriculture and economic growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy.
The IMD expects the monsoon to arrive in Kerala around June 4. It said that they are not expecting monsoon to arrive before June 1.
The weather department, in its second forecast for the 2023 southwest monsoon season, said the rains will be 'normal' over all remaining parts of India, including the main rain-fed dependent zones.
The probability of normal rainfall during the June-to-September period is 43 per cent, while that of above-normal rainfall is 11 per cent, it said.
The northwestern part of the country is expected to remain slightly deficient in rains with monsoon bringing in less than 92 per cent of the normal, the IMD mentioned.
