Monsoon scale changed: According to the Meteorological Department, now 868.6 mm of rain will be considered normal, earlier it was 880.6 mm

The Meteorological Department (IMD) changed the scale of normal southwest monsoon to lower on Thursday. Till now 880.6 mm of rain was considered normal. Now it has been changed to 868.6 mm. This change has been made according to the latest data received from Renegades across the country.

Earlier, the IMD considered the long period average of 88 cm between 1961-2010 to estimate the monsoon rainfall.

Updated every 10 years
IMD Director General Mrityunjay Mohapatra said that the normal rainfall or LPA is updated every 10 years. However, last time it was delayed by seven years and it was started in 2019. Till then the department was using the 1951-2001 LPA which was 89 cms. The new monsoon normalization scale has been made on the basis of data from 4132 rain gauges. These ranges are installed in 703 districts of the country.

Gets data from 703 districts
He said that we consider various aspects before releasing the rain forecast. These keep on changing over time. Apart from this, rain gauges have now been installed at many places in the country. This has allowed us to get more data. According to the new scale, this year the southwest monsoon is expected to receive 96 to 104 per cent rainfall as against the long period average (LPA) of 87 cm for the period 1971-2020.