About 40 meteorological districts of the country received scanty rains and 176 districts received deficient rainfall in the current monsoon period till date.

WEATHER REVIEW: A well-marked low pressure area which lay centred over Orissa and adjoining West Bengal and east MP on July 15, gradually moved westward. It was over east MP on July 16 and over west MP on July 17 where it weakened gradually.

During the week ended July 21, southwest monsoon was vigorous over Bihar plateau, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat region, coastal Karnataka, Konkan, Goa and active over Assam, Meghalaya, Gangetic West Bengal, UP, central Maharashtra, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, south interior Karnataka, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Vidarbha, south interior Karnataka and Andaman & NicobarIslands. Rainfall also occurred at most places in sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar plains, Orissa, Punjab, Haryana, Marathwada and at many places in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, east Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep. Apart from these areas rains occurred at a few or isolated places in rest regions of the country.

During the week ended July 21, Rayalaseema received scanty rainfall whereas Orissa, Bihar plateau, Bihar plains, east UP, plains of west UP, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry received deficient rainfall.

WEATHER FORECAST: Increased rainfall activity will continue over MP, Gujarat and along the west coast and Karnataka. Rainfall activity is likely to increase over east Rajasthan, Haryana, UP, Bihar plateau, West Bengal, Sikkim, Orissa, Telangana and interior Maharashtra. Normal rainfall activity will continue in rest regions of the country.

MONSOON ASSESSMENT: During the period June 1 to July 21, 28 out of 35meteorological sub-divisions and 71 per cent of meteorological districts in the country received normal to excess rainfall.

Deficient rainfall has been experienced in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Orissa, plains of west UP, west MP, east MP, Saurashtra, Kutch, Diu, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, whilst excess rainfall has been experienced in Bihar plateau, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat region, Daman, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Konkan, Goa and Lakshadweep during the monsoon period till July 21.Following are some of the meteorological districts which received scanty and deficient rainfall:-

Arunachal Pradesh: Subansiri district received deficient rainfall.

Assam: Cachar, NC Hills, Nowgong, Sibsagar, Sonitpur, Jorhat, Karbi-Along, Dhubri and Kokrajhar received deficient rainfall

Meghalaya: Garo Hills received deficient rainfall

West Bengal: North 24-Paragans received deficient rainfall

Orissa: Bolangir, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Kalahandi, Keonjhargarh, Puri and Sambalpur received deficient rainfall.

Bihar:Gopalganj received scanty rainfall whereas Godda, Bhojpur and Vaishali received deficient rainfall.

UP: Hardoi, Aligarh, Etah, Etawah, Jhansi, Pilibhit, Rampur, Lalitpur, Tehrio Garwal and Pauri Garwal received scanty rainfall whereas Bahraich, Basti, Deoria, Faizabad, Farukhabad, Fatehpur, Gonda, Kheri, Lucknow, Rae Bareilly, Sitapur, Unnao, Badaun, Bijnore, BulandshahrHamirpur, Jalaun, Mainpuri, Meerut, Moradabad, Saharanpur Shahjahanpur, Almora, Chamoli, Nainital and Pithoragarh received deficient rainfall.

Haryana: Bhiwani, Mahendragarh received scanty rainfall whereas Faridabad, Hissar, Jind, Karnal, Kurushetra, Rewari, Rohtak and Sonipat received deficient rainfall.

Punjab: Only Sangrur district received deficient rainfall

Himachal Pradesh: Chamba and Kinnaur received deficient rainfall

J&K: Kupwara, Badgam and Ladahak received scanty rainfall whereas Udhampur received deficient rainfall.

Rajasthan: Hanumangarh district received no rains, Bikaner, Churu, Jaisalmer, Baran, Jhalawar andKarauli received scanty rainfall whereas Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur, PaliAlwar, Bhilwara, Bundi, Dausa, Dholpur, Dungarpur, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Kota, Sikar, Sirohi, and Tonk received deficient rainfall

MP: Damoh, Datia, Gwalior, Guna, Seoni, Tikamgarh, Rewa, Shahdol, Sidhi received scanty rainfall whereas Bhind, Vidisha, Bhopal, Chhatarpur, Chindwara, Dewas, Indore, Morena, Mandsour, Narsinghpur, Raisen, Rajgarh, Ratlam, Sagar, Sehore, Shajapur, Shivpuri, Ujjain, Bastar, Bilaspur, Durg, Jabalpur, Raigarh, Raipur, Rajnandgaon, Setna received deficient rainfall

Gujarat: Banaskantha, Kutch, Diu received scanty rainfall whereas Vadodra, Broach, Sabarkantha, Surat, Jamnagar, Junagarh, and Rajkot received deficient rainfall.