After a miserly performance in September, monsoon revived itself on its weaning days, before the expected departure on Oct 16 or 17, that may shot up rains over the country in the next 72 hours, Met Office sources said yesterday. Rains in September were only 16 percent less than normal average and, sources said, the rains are likely to be normal in October.
One or two low pressures in the Bay of Bengal this month may brew a Cyclone that may further boost the rains before the monsoon bids farewell for this year after heralding the rainy season with a bang in June 17 over the country. A spell of heavy rains yesterday in the sub-Himalayan northern districts of Nilphamari and Dinajpur indicated that the rains have not gone away despite the arrival of the Autumn with Ashwin and Kartick, the month when the weather takes a turn towards winter.
Since the rains arrived with the monsoon fully in mid June, it triggered floods in the country when the major rivers went into spate, swollen by heavy rains upstream, to the extent that an elephant was swept into the country down the Brahmaputra from a flooded Assam state of north- eastern India.