New Delhi:
In what may come as a relief to farmers across the country, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) today announced that monsoons will be normal this year. However, the department also cautioned that there is a 24 per cent probability that it could be below normal.
In its first monsoon forecast for 2012, the Met department said that monsoons are likely to be normal with 96 per cent to 104 per cent of Long Period Average (LPA) with an average of 89 cm rainfall.
In 2011, India witnessed an LPA of 101% and the weather department declared that monsoon was normal.
The second phase of the assessment of the monsoon by the Indian Meteorological Department will be announced in June 2012.