Monsoon turns He-Man, with an increase of 11% above normal in just 3 days!

And eventually, giving a respite from the mercury mayhem, the country has bathed with a bliss from heaven, the much awaited monsoon shower. In last 3 days, total rainfall has marked an 11% rise than normal.

This increase in rainfall will boost planting of crops that had lagged behind so far, and replenish water reservoirs that irrigate fields and feed hydropower plants, according to a news report in The Economic Times.

However, it would be premature to celebrate as the weather office expects a shortfall of 12% in the monsoon's often-erratic, four-month journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir that delivers 75% of India's annual rain.

Rainfall was 76% more than normal in the past 24 hours, accelerating from an excess of 46% on Saturday and 22% on Friday. The turnaround has been dramatic in the oil seed growing regions of central India, where rainfall since June 1 was 31% in deficit on June 10, but is now 12% higher than normal. The region received three times the normal rain in the past day. The monsoon has now covered entire Maharashtra, and extends up to Surat, Raipur and Darjeeling.

The good news is that it is poised to extend to more areas in a few days, the India Meteorological Department said in its latest forecast on Sunday.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of north Arabian Sea, Gujarat state, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha; remaining parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh, northwest Bay of Bengal and some parts of Jharkhand and Bihar during next three days," it said.

The weather office expects the rainfall to continue in the days ahead. Rainfall is expected in many cities including Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Indore, Bhopal, Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Surat, Lucknow, Kanpur, Guwahati, Tezpur and Shillong. The revival of rainfall will boost crop planting, which was 9% below last year's level on Friday. Officials told the ET that this was likely to change soon.

"When rainfall comes after a dry phase, farmers quickly plant crops and make up for the lost time. The recent increase in rainfall is very favourable," an agriculture ministry official told the financial daily. So far farmers have planted rice on a bigger area than last year, but pulses, coarse cereals and cotton sowing has declined, compared to last year.

(Image: Reuters)