What is Normal Monsoon

India is likely to experience a normal monsoon this year because of the fading El Nino conditions and reduced snow cover over Eurasia.

The long period average (LPA) of the rainfall over India as a whole in case of monsoon season (June to September) is 88 cm.

A monsoon is considered “normal” when rainfall falls between 96% and 104% of this LPA.

The ‘normal’ monsoon rains don’t imply that all months would see well distributed rains.

In 2021, for instance, August stared at a 24% deficit but September, usually the month that sees the least rainfall, saw excess rains, similar to what was observed in 2019 and 2020.