Pre-monsoon rain total this year 3rd highest in 64 years

Time of India

24-05-2025

Panaji:
In the peak summer month that witnessed sweltering heat for 12 days, anomalously high rainfall for just four days logged an incredible surplus of almost 1,000%, as the unseasonal total soared to a record of third highest in six decades.
On Saturday, with a week remaining for the summer to end, the
India Meteorological Department
(IMD), Panaji, recorded a mammoth total of 436.1mm since March 1.
In the past, the pre-monsoon total of 662.2mm recorded in the summer of 1961 was the highest, followed by 591.9mm of pre-monsoon rain recorded in 2006.
While an extremely severe storm, Cyclone Tauktae, turned the summer of 2021 into a typical monsoon-like month, swelling the unseasonal total to 394.3mm, it had ended as the third wettest pre-monsoon season in Goa.
The frequency of rainy days outside the normal rainy season is increasing phenomenally the world over, said Rajiv Chaturvedi, associate professor of BITS Pilani, Goa.
'The Goa State Action Plan on Climate Change (GSAPCC) found that the exceptionally heavy rainfall events in the state have increased by more than 100%,' Chaturvedi said.
This summer, a depression and an associated cyclonic circulation have triggered copious rainfall activity, creating havoc in the state.
The rain was light and moderate for most of the 12-day phase — barring a dry day on May 14 — since the pre-monsoon activity resumed on May 13. Only 65.1mm was added to the total during the first eight of the 12 days.
But extremely heavy rainfall of 207.4mm in Pernem and very heavy to heavy rainfall in several centres during the 24-hour phase till the morning of May 21 shot up the daily average to 139.2mm.
On following days, the IMD recorded state average rainfall of 95.3mm on May 22, 80.9mm on May 23, and 55.6mm on Saturday morning — an unusually high 371.1mm in just four days.
While the surplus soared to 983.4% on Saturday — the normal value is just 40.2mm — a week of pre-monsoon activity is expected to push it still higher.
Multiple reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggest that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are the main driver of the changes witnessed in extreme weather events, including heavy unseasonal rain, Chaturvedi said.
'It is important to limit warming to safe levels by reducing emissions the world over so that such extreme and exceptional events don't become a norm,' the expert member for the implementation of GSAPCC said.