Odisha Receives 24.5% Surplus Rainfall In August

Bhubaneswar: Odisha received an average rainfall of 443.3 mm in August as against the long term average (LTA) of 356.0 mm, registering a surplus of 24.5% during the month.

Among the 30 districts, Malkanagiri received the highest rainfall of 763.3 mm (61.5% surplus) and Puri district received the lowest rainfall of 287.6 mm (3.4% deficit) in August.

The cumulative rainfall of the state between June 1 and August 31 was 901 mm as against the LTA of 912.4 mm, registering a deficit of 1.2%.

The five districts of Kalahandi, Koraput, Malkanagiri, Balangir and Jharsuguda received surplus rainfall of more than 19% during the period between June 1 and August 31.

The 21 districts which received normal rainfall (+ 19% to -19%) are Kandhamal, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Cuttack, Puri, Sonepur, Bargarh, Khurda, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Jajpur, Gajapati, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Nuapada, Jagatsinghpur, Sambalpur, Boudh, Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj and Balasore. The rest four districts of Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Angul and Deogarh received deficit rainfall (between 19% and 39%) during the period.

Malkanagiri district received the highest rainfall of 1548.7 mm (34.6% surplus) while Gajapati district received the lowest rainfall (cumulative) of 616.6 mm (9.8% deficit).

In all, there were 35.7 rainy days from June to August 2019 as against the normal average of 40.9 rainy days. There were 7.4 rainy days in June, 13.7 rainy days in July and 14.6 rainy days in August 2019.

Going by the block-wise rainfall data, 66 blocks have received surplus rainfall (>19%), 169 blocks received normal rainfall (+ 19% to – 19%), 68 blocks received deficit rainfall (-19% to -39%) and 11 blocks received severe deficit rainfall (-39% to -59%) during these 3 months June-July-August cumulatively.

Besides, 11 blocks which have experienced severe deficit rainfall are Balasore (-42.0%) and Nilagiri (-42.6%) in Balasore district, Riamal (-41.8%) in Deogarh district, Harichandanpur (-39.9%), Champua (43.6%), Jhumpura (-44.5%) and Joda (-47.9%) in Keonjhar district, Narayanpatna (-44.5%) in Koraput district, Naktideul (-47.7%) in Sambalpur district and Rajgangpur (-41.0%) and Bonai (-44.8%) in Sundargarh district.