Odisha receives 9 per cent deficit rain in July

Odisha has registered a deficit rainfall of nine per cent in July this year, an official said.

The state received an average rainfall of 309.4 mm against the Long Term Average (LTA) of 339.9 mm during July.

Of the 30 districts, Malkanagiri received the highest rainfall of 633.8 mm in July while Bhadrak got the lowest of 178.9 mm, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), B P Sethi said in a statement.

The cumulative rainfall of the state in June and July, remained 457.7 mm against the LTA of 556.4 mm, registering a deficit of 17.7 per cent.

In all, 11 districts of Nawarangpur, Malkanagiri, Puri, Kalahandi, Khordha, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Bargarh, Ganjam, Subarnapur and Rayagada recorded normal rainfall last month, the statement said.

 

Rainfall in 17 districts - Jharsuguda, Nayagarh, Dhenkanal, Nuapada, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Balangir, Boudh, Sambalpur, Kendrapara, Balasore, Gajapati, Keonjhar, Bhadrak, Angul, Mayurbhanj and Deogarh - remained deficit between 19 per cent and 39 per cent.

Rainfall in Sundargarh district remained severe deficit between 39 per cent and -59 per cent during the period.

On an average, Odisha experiences 15.4 rainy days in July.

However, this time, there were 13.7 rainy days during the month.

In June, there were 7.4 rainy days against the normal average of 9.9 days, the statement said.

Going by rainfall data of the blocks, 32 blocks have received surplus rainfall and 115 blocks received normal rainfall.

While 98 blocks received deficit rainfall, 63 blocks got severe deficit rainfall in July.

The rainfall deficit, which stood at 26.3 per cent on July 19 and around 32 per cent on July 24, has now come down considerably following downpour in most parts of the state during last week, the statement said.

The deficit may be reduced further as the state is likely to experience heavy rainfall in the next few days, officials said.