Hyderabad records 34 per cent rainfall deficit as monsoon disappoints

Hyderabad: Mother Nature kept Hyderabad guessing and gasping for rains this season! On numerous occasions, dark, rain-bearing clouds enveloped the city, triggering high-severity alerts from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Hyderabad. However, the promise of heavy rains never materialized, as the grey clouds dissolved into thin air or delivered scanty drizzle at isolated locations.

For people of Hyderabad, the monsoon season felt like an exercise in anxiety management and a realization of the fickle nature of forecasting rains due to the unpredictable nature of rain-bearing clouds.

Multiple times, the IMD issued heavy-to-very-heavy rainfall alerts, as low pressure systems formed over Bay of Bengal. Civic bodies scrambled, emergency response teams, police and traffic departments issued alerts and advisories and even advocated staggered timings for IT companies. And then, nothing happened!

In the end, the entire core region of Hyderabad registered fewer than 2 to 3 isolated heavy downpours during this year’s monsoons between June and September. The dry phase broke Hyderabad and its surrounding district’s wet streak that lasted for multiple years and left the region in a severe 34 percent deficit rainfall. In the end, Hyderabad received just 488.3 mm (48.8 cm) against a normal of 745.1 mm (74.5 cm), TSDPS rainfall data indicated.

The dry spell didn’t stop at the city limits, as it choked all the surrounding districts. While Hyderabad recorded a deficit of 34 percent (488.3 mm against a normal of 745.1 mm), its immediate neighbors fared even worse. Medchal-Malkajgiri witnessed a 39 percent deficit, Vikarabad had a 32 percent rainfall deficit, Yadadri Bhongir has deficit of 30 percent, Rangareddy recorded a 28 percent shortfall, and Sangareddy recorded a 25 percent deficit.

“There are a lot of reasons for underperformance of monsoons this year including El Nino, which also led to high temperatures during peak monsoon months. This year was tough, in terms of rains,” a senior duty officer from IMD, Hyderabad said.

Deficit rainfall in Hyderabad and surrounding districts: (TSDPS data)

• Hyderabad: 34 percent
• Medchal-Malkajgiri: 39 percent
• Vikarabad: 32 percent .
• Yadadri Bhuvanagiri (Bhongir): 30 percent.
• Rangareddy: 28 percent
• Sangareddy: 25 percent

Some important points:

• Mother nature kept Hyderabad gasping for rains
• Dark rain bearing clouds came but never materialized
• Only 2 to 3 major rainfall events in Hyderabad this year
• IMD, Hyderabad issued multiple severe rainfall alerts
• However, monsoons failed, reflecting the fickle nature of monsoon forecasting