NEW DELHI
\nCurrent weather conditions indicate that India\u2019s monsoon is unlikely to start receding before early October, more than a month later than usual, the head of the weather office said on Friday.
\nAnnual monsoon rains are crucial for India\u2019s $2.75 trillion farm-dependent economy. The monsoon generally begins in June and starts to retreat by Sept. 1, but rains have continued beyond that date this year and triggered fatal floods in western India, killing hundreds of people.
\n\u201cThe withdrawal of the monsoon, which is already delayed, is ruled out for at least the next 10 days as weather conditions have not become favorable for the season to end,\u201d Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD), said.
\nIndia relies heavily on the monsoon for irrigation, though crop damage and delayed harvests can result if the rainfall persists.
\nThis month\u2019s rainfall has intensified over central, southern and western India, causing floods that have swamped cane and rice fields.
\n\u201cWe can see that monsoon rains have improved steadily after a weak, delayed start in June and we now believe that overall rainfall this season will be either normal or above normal,\u201d Mohapatra said.
\nTwo senior weather department officials said this month that monsoon rains were likely to be above average for the first time in six years.
\nThe IMD defines average, or normal, rainfall as between 96 percent and 104 percent of a 50-year average of 89 cm for the entire four-month season.
\nMonsoon rains, which deliver about 70 percent of the country\u2019s annual rainfall, arrived on the western Kerala coast on June 8, nearly a week later than usual.
\nThe driest June in five years and a below-average July stoked fears of a drought, but rains picked up in August and September as both the El Nino weather pattern and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) phenomenon turned favorable.
\nA strong El Nino, marked by a warming of the surface of the Pacific Ocean, can cause severe drought in Australia, Southeast Asia and India, while drenching other parts of the world, such as the US Midwest and Brazil.
\nThe IOD is characterized by higher sea-surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean and southwesterly winds that bring rain to the Indian sub-continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI Current weather conditions indicate that India\u2019s monsoon is unlikely to start receding before early October, more than a month later than usual, the head of the weather office said on Friday. Annual monsoon rains are crucial for India\u2019s $2.75 trillion farm-dependent economy. The monsoon generally begins in June and starts to retreat by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n