New Delhi,  Thanks to the Cyclone Asani that brought in abundant rain on the east coast and also pushed loads of pre-monsoon showers in the south, there has been excess rainfall over east, northeast and south peninsular India while there was deficient rainfall over northwest and central India in May.

Much of the rain due to the cyclone was in the second and third week of the month.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) data showed that the country as a whole received 129 mm rainfall against 129.3 mm of normal in June, which shows no departure at all.

Northwest India showed the highest deficit with just 41 mm rainfall against the normal of 113.3 mm, showing a departure of minus 64 per cent while central India received 22.6 mm rainfall against 36.6 mm normal, a departure of minus 38 per cent.

On the other hand, east and NE India received 442.7 mm rainfall against the normal of 369.4 mm, showing a departure of plus 20 per cent, while the southern peninsula received 194.5 mm rainfall against 118.4 mm of normal, a departure of plus 64 per cent, IMD data showed.

During the month of May, there were 504 incidents of heavy rainfall (i.e., rainfall between 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm), 95 incidents of very heavy rainfall (115.6 to 204.5 mm), and 23 events of extremely heavy rainfall (more than 204.5 mm).

The IMD counts every station recording such rainfall in a given 24 hours as one incident.

"Most of these extreme rainfall events were recorded in the northeast, which has seen excess rainfall this month," said IMD's Director General, Meteorology, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra.

"For May, above normal maximum temperatures over many parts of Northwest India were correctly predicted (by us). Similarly, below normal maximum temperature observed over the remaining part of the country were also predicted correctly," he said.