Odisha receives 28.9% surplus rainfall in July

Bhubaneswar, Aug 1 :  Odisha has received a surplus rainfall of 28.9 per cent in July, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) on Wednesday informed.

The state received an average rainfall of 438.0 mm against the long-term average (LTA) of 339.9 mm in July this year, thereby making it a surplus of 28.9 per cent.

Malkangiri district received the highest rainfall of 761.6 mm during the month while Nuapada district received the lowest at 277.0 mm, the statement said.

The cumulative rainfall of the state in June and July remained 599.2 mm against the LTA of 556.4 mm registering a surplus of 7.7 per cent.

It said 10 districts namely Puri, Khordha, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Rayagada, Cuttack, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Gajapati received surplus rainfall of more than 19 per cent whereas 16 districts received normal rainfall. These are Ganjam, Kandhamal, Bhadrak, Balasore, Subarnapur, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Koraput, Bargarh, Boudh, Nayagarh, Jharsuguda,Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nawarangpur and Deogarh, said the SRC.

Similarly, four districts Angul, Balangir, Sundergarh and Nuapada remained deficit between 19 per cent and 39 per cent during the period of June and July, the SRC said.

On an average, the state experiences 15.4 rainy days in the month of July, but this year there were 15.6 rainy days.

In June, there were 8.1 rainy days against the normal average of 9.9 days.

Going by the block-wise rainfall data, 103 blocks have received surplus rainfall, 149 blocks received normal rainfall, 44 blocks received deficit rainfall and 18 blocks received severe deficit rainfall in June-July cumulatively.