Maharashtra got over 529 mm rain this July, making it the wettest July since 1901

Ever since record keeping began in 1901, Maharashtra has witnessed wettest July this year with the state recording 529.5 mm of rainfall during the month.

However, the whole country, on the other hand, recorded lowest July rainfall since 2021 at 305.8mm. This highlights the sharp regional disparities in this year’s monsoon patterns.

Pune district recorded the second-highest rainfall in July since 1961, when the catastrophic Panshet floods had devasted the region. IMD data showed that July 2024’s total rainfall in Pune district reached 620.5mm, significantly below the 1961 record of 696.1mm and second to July rain of 2019 at 770.4mm.

Medha Khole, head of the weather forecasting division at India Meteorological Department (IMD), Pune, said, “As the monsoon season began in June, it was initially not very active. June ended with a rainfall deficiency at the all-India level. However, as July began, the monsoon became very active, particularly over central India and the southern peninsula. The main reasons for this increased activity included the monsoon trough at the surface level being mostly south of its normal position, there was a very active shear zone around central India, approximately at 20°N, which had a significant southward tilt with height. This southward tilt is a crucial factor,” as per a TOI report.

The India’s total rainfall for July stood at 316.5mm in 2023 and 327.2mm in 2022. Some of Maharashtra’s highest July rainfall totals in the last century include 528mm in 2022, 507.8mm in 2013, 520.1mm in 1944 and 508.7mm in 1942.