Though Kerala has been receiving copious rain in the past few years, especially after 2018, the year that witnessed mega floods in the State, the southwest monsoon rainfall over Kerala is showing a decreasing trend while there is a noticeable increase in the northeast monsoon precipitation.
While forecasting a normal southwest monsoon for this year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has changed its definition of the long period average (LPA), an indication of the average rainfall over a 50-year interval.
The LPA will have to be updated every 10 years and when the average rainfall was updated as per the new norm, there was a drop of 30 mm in the southwest monsoon, which constitutes around 80% of the total rainfall in the State. Similarly, there was an increase of 0.3 mm rainfall during the northeast monsoon.
