Bhubaneswar: Odisha has received an average rainfall of 309.4 mm against the long term average (LTA) of 339.9 mm registering a deficit of 9.0%, said an official release.
As per a communiqué issued by the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), Malkanagiri district received the highest rainfall of 633.8 mm (36.1% surplus) and Bhadrak district received the lowest rainfall of 178.9 mm (39.1% deficit) during the month.
The cumulative rainfall of the State in June and July, 2019 remained 457.7 mm against the LTA of 556.4 mm registering a deficit of 17.7%. Cumulatively, only Koraput district has received surplus rainfall more than 19%, it said.
At least 11 districts which received normal rainfall (+ 19% to – 19%) are Nawarangpur, Malkanagiri, Puri, Kalahandi, Khordha, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Bargarh, Ganjam, Subarnapur and Rayagada, it added.
Rainfall in 17 districts namely, Jharsuguda, Nayagarh, Dhenkanal, Nuapada, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Balangir, Boudh, Sambalpur, Kendrapara, Balasore, Gajapati, Keonjhar, Bhadrak, Angul, Mayurbhanj and Deogarh has remained deficit between 19% & 39%.
Rainfall in one district Sundargarh comes under severe deficit category i.e. between (-39% & -59%) during the period from June 1 to July 31, it further stated.
On an average, the State experiences 15.4 rainy days in the month of July. There were 13.7 rainy days during July this year. In June 2019, there were 7.4 rainy days against the normal average of 9.9 days, it added.
Going by the Block-wise rainfall data, 32 number of Blocks have received surplus rainfall (>19%), 115 Blocks received normal rainfall (+ 19% to – 19%), 98 Blocks received deficit rainfall (-19% to -39%), 63 Blocks received severe deficit rainfall (-39% to -59%) and 6 Blocks experienced scanty rainfall i.e. deficit by more than 59% during these 2 months June-July cumulatively. Six Blocks which have experienced scanty rainfall are Odapada in Dhenkanal District (-64.1%), Banspal (-65.2%) & Joda (-59.5%) in Keonjhar District and Nuagaon (-69.2%), Subdega (-62.3%) & Bonai (-60.8%) in Sundargarh district.