This month records highest July rain in 3 decades

PANAJI: In June, the India meteorological department (IMD) had forecast excess rainfall for the first fortnight of July.

A few days ago, the intermittently intense rainfall pushed the month’s total past the earlier record to 1,774.2mm.

If the rain gauge at St Cruz in Mumbai registered the wettest July ever (1,557.8mm), Goa, battered by torrential rainfall for almost a month, was under a prolonged deluge.

Meteorologists and scientists say extreme weather events are inevitable. “In a climate change scenario, we expect the rainfall to increase. There is a thumb rule that if the temperature increases by 1 degree celsius, then the atmosphere’s moisture-holding capacity increases by 7%,” said Rajiv Chaturvedi, associate professor, BITS Pilani, and UN expert on greenhouse gas inventory.

Chaturvedi added, “So the earth has already warmed by 1.1 degrees celsius compared to pre-industrial times (1860).”

The earlier milestone was when IMD, Panaji, recorded 1,526.1mm in July 1995. Another notable record was in July 2013 when the total rainfall swelled to 1,387.8mm (54.6 inches) in phases of vigorous monsoon activity during the month and 1,252.6mm in July 2020.

After the scorching summer, the heavy downpour has thrust the mercury way down.“In active monsoon conditions, especially in July, and in Panaji in particular, the maximum temperature dropped below 26 degrees celsius and minimum around 23 degrees celsius,” said M R Ramesh Kumar, chief scientist (retired) of National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula. He added, “It was as if the whole city was in an air-conditioned mode.”

But on the flip side, many low-lying areas have been under prolonged waterlogging, causing damage to crops and roads across Goa.

On Friday, the seasonal total had touched 2,452.2mm, whereas 1,867.4mm is considered normal at this stage, yielding a surplus of 31.3%.

Over the last 24 hours, after the rainfall activity had decreased slightly, Sanguem recorded the highest rainfall of 48mm, Quepem 40.2mm, Margao 25.8mm, Canacona 18.2mm and other centres on a lesser scale.


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