July's normal monsoon rain narrowed rainfall deficit, but analysis shows showers were uneven, triggering floods in some regions and dry reservoirs in others New Delhi: With half of the June-September monsoon season over, country-level deficit in rainfall has decreased substantially compared to earlier in the season, although it remains significant. This is thanks to July rain, which has been usual. However, an HT analysis of the gridded rainfall data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) shows that the cumulative country-level trend hides the concentration of July rain in a few places and in about half the days of the month. This is why parts of the country are reporting devastating floods and other parts are reporting dry reservoirs. Here are three charts that explain thisParts of the country are reporting devastating floods (AP Photo)A small surplus in July has decreased monsoon deficitCountry-level rain in July this year is 281.9 mm, according to the gridded rain data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This is around 2.2% more than the 1971-2020 average, which IMD currently considers as the Long Period Average (LPA) for tracking rain’s performance; and ranked 68th highest (or 59th lowest) since 1901, the first year for which IMD has published gridded data. This modest surplus has helped decrease the cumulative monsoon deficit from 31% in June to just 10.5% now. To be sure, the rank and departure might be somewhat different in the summary statistics IMD publishes because of differences in weather stations used and the process of calculation.But this surplus was made possible by just 18 days of rainTo be sure, the small surplus in July rain was accumulated in just 18 days that recorded a surplus. In total, these 18 days received 209.3 mm rain compared to the LPA of 156.3 mm for those days, a 34% surplus. The other 13 days, all of which recorded a deficit and have a cumulative LPA of 119.6 mm, received just 72.7 mm rain, a 39% deficit.