Statement on Climate of India during 2019

On January 6, 2020, India Meteorological Department (IMD) released a statement on the climate of India during 2019. The highlights of the IMD statement are:

Temperatures

·      Average temperature over India during the year 2019 was above normal. During the year, annual mean surface air temperature, averaged over the country, was +0.360C above (1981-2010 period) average.

·      The year 2019 was the seventh warmest year on record since nation-wide records commenced in 1901. However, the warming during 2019 was substantially lower than the highest warming observed over India during 2016.

·      11 out of 15 warmest years were during the recent past fifteen years (2005-2019).

·      The past decade (2001-2010/ 2010-2019) was also the warmest decade on record.

Rainfall

·      The 2019 annual rainfall over the country as a whole was 109% of its Long Period Average (LPA) value for the period 1961-2010.

·      The monsoon season (June-September) rainfall over the country as a whole was 110% of its LPA.

·      The seasonal rainfall during the North East monsoon season (October – December) over the NE Monsoon core region of the south peninsula was 109% of its LPA.

High Impact Weather Events

·      During 2019, 8 cyclonic storms formed over the Indian seas.

·      Arabian Sea contributed 5 out of these 8 cyclones against the normal of 1 per year, which equals the previous record of 1902 for the highest frequency of cyclones over the Arabian Sea.

·      The year 2019 also witnessed development of more intense cyclones over the Arabian Sea. Out of 5 systems formed in the Arabian Sea, there were two very severe cyclonic storms, one extremely severe cyclonic storm and one super cyclonic storm.

·      The cyclone activity over the Bay of Bengal during 2019 was subdued as only 3 cyclones formed against the normal of 4 per year.

·      The country also experienced other high impact weather events like, extremely heavy rainfall, heat and cold waves, snow fall, thunderstorm, dust storm, lightning, floods etc.

·      Heavy rain and flood related incidents reportedly claimed over 850 lives from different parts of the country during the pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons.