An analysis of the daily district wise rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the month of June 2022, the first month of India’s South West Monsoon 2022 shows that there were 462 instances (442 in June 2021) when district rainfall of a day was above 50 mm. This is high considering that the rainfall of India in June 2022 was 152.3 mm[i], or daily average rainfall is about 5 mm. The high rainfall instances in June 2022 included 339 (371 in June 2021) instances when rainfall was 50-100 mm, 68 instances (59 in June 2021) when it was 100-150 mm, 26 (5 times in June 2021) times it was 150-200 mm and 29 (7 times in June 2021) times above 200 mm.
Climate Change footprint on Rainfall pattern in June 2022 When we compare these figures with the figures of high rainfall district days in June 2021[ii] (when rainfall was 182.9 mm, over 30 mm more than the rainfall in June 2022), we see that the total number of such days is higher in 2022 as also the district days when day rainfall is 100-150 mm, day rainfall is 150-200 mm and when day rainfall is over 200 mm, even when June 2022 rainfall is lower than the rain in June 2021. This is a clear indication of rainfall pattern getting more skewed towards high intensity rainfall days interspersed with drier periods. This is clearly footprint of climate change on rainfall pattern.
High Rainfall district days in June 2022 Out of 703 districts of India, 154 districts or about a third of the districts experienced high rainfall days in June 2022. There were some districts that had more than one such high rainfall days in June 2022. The highest number of such instances were seen in Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh of North East India, where for the 54 districts that belong to these three states, there were 254 instances when rainfall was above 50 mm. .
Among the five regions of India (North, South, East, West and North East), North East India had the highest number of such instances (304), followed by East India (65). North India had by far the least such instances at 20, the monsoon had not yet arrived in most states of North by the end of June 2022.
North East India
| State | Districts that had over 50 mm rainfall at least on one day in June 2022 (Total no of districts) | No of district days when rainfall 50-100 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 100-150 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 150-200 | No of district days when Rainfall over 200 mm | Total no of district days when rainfall over 50 mm |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 12 (16) | 45 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 51 |
| Assam | 20 (27) | 60 | 24 | 11 | 12 | 107 |
| Meghalaya | 10 (11) | 46 | 24 | 10 | 16 | 96 |
| Nagaland | 5 (11) | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Manipur | 5 (9) | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Mizoram | 5 (8) | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Tripura | 7 (8) | 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| Sikkim | 3 (4) | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| North East India | 67 (94) | 195 | 56 | 24 | 29 | 304 |
East India
| State | Districts that had over 50 mm rainfall at least on one day in June 2022 (Total no of districts) | No of district days when rainfall 50-100 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 100-150 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 150-200 | No of district days when Rainfall over 200 mm | Total no of district days when rainfall over 50 mm |
| W Bengal | 5 (19) | 24 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 30 |
| Odisha | 1 (30) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jharkhand | 2 (24) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Bihar | 16 (38) | 18 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 8 (75) | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| East India | 32 (186) | 54 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 65 |
North India
| State/ Union Territory | Districts that had over 50 mm rainfall at least on one day in June 2022 (Total no of districts) | No of district days when rainfall 50-100 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 100-150 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 150-200 | No of district days when Rainfall over 200 mm | Total no of district days when rainfall over 50 mm |
| Uttarakhand | 3 (13) | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Haryana | 0 (22) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chandigarh | 1 (1) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Delhi | 0 (9) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Punjab | 1 (22) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 1 (12) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 11 (20) | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| Ladakh | 0 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| North India | 17 (101) | 19 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20 |
West India
| State | Districts that had over 50 mm rainfall at least on one day in June 2022 (Total no of districts) | No of district days when rainfall 50-100 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 100-150 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 150-200 | No of district days when Rainfall over 200 mm | Total no of district days when rainfall over 50 mm |
| Rajasthan | 0 (33) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 0 (52) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Diu Daman | 1 (2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gujarat | 1 (33) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dadra Nagarhaveli | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goa | 2 (2) | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Maharashtra | 5 (36) | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Chhattisgarh | 3 (27) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| West India | 12 (186) | 35 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 36 |
South India
| State | Districts that had over 50 mm rainfall at least on one day in June 2022 (Total no of districts) | No of district days when rainfall 50-100 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 100-150 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 150-200 | No of district days when Rainfall over 200 mm | Total no of district days when rainfall over 50 mm |
| Andhra Pradesh | 0 (13) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Telangana | 11 (33) | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Tamil Nadu | 2 (38) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Puducherry | 2 (4) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Karnataka | 6 (30) | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Kerala | 4 (14) | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Lakshadweep | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andaman & Nicobar | 1 (3) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| South India | 26 (136) | 36 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 37 |
INDIA
| Region | Districts that had over 50 mm rainfall at least on one day in June 2022 (Total no of districts) | No of district days when rainfall 50-100 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 100-150 mm | No of district days when Rainfall 150-200 | No of district days when Rainfall over 200 mm | Total no of district days when rainfall over 50 mm |
| North East | 67 /94 | 195 (91) | 56 | 24 | 29 | 304 (120) |
| East | 32 /186 | 54 (113) | 10 | 1 | 0 | 65 (129) |
| North | 17 /101 | 19 (14) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20 (15) |
| West | 12 /186 | 35 (77) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 36 (101) |
| South | 26 /136 | 36 (76) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 37 (77) |
| INDIA | 154 /703 | 339 (371) | 68 (59) | 26 (5) | 29 (7) | 462 (442) |
In the table above, the figures given in the brackets are for the month of June 2021 for the respective figures. We can see the highly skewed figures with very high number of high rainfall district days occurring in North East India in June 2022 compared to June 2021. We can also see that for the rest of the regions, the numbers are much lower in June 2022 compared to June 2021. We can also see that the number of district days for rainfall in a day of 100-150 mm, 150-200 mm and above 200 mm are each much higher in June 2022 compared to June 2021, even through national rainfall in June 2022 was lower than that in June 2021. All of this indicates even more skewed distribution of rainfall in June 2022 compared to that in June 2021.
SANDRP (ht.sandrp@gmail.com)
[i] https://sandrp.in/2022/06/30/june-2022-district-wise-rainfall-in-in-indias-sw-monsoon/
[ii] https://sandrp.in/2021/07/23/high-rainfall-days-in-indias-districts-in-june-2021/
SANDRP 