Panaji: A brief burst of rainfall activity has resulted in Sept 23 recording 30.4mm rainfall within 24 hours, making it this month’s wettest day so far. As the southwest monsoon was in the ‘vigorous’ state over Goa on Tuesday, moderate to heavy rainfall occurred at a few places over the state. The spell resulted in maximum temperatures falling nearly one degree below normal. Until a day ago, Panaji recorded a maximum temperature of 32.5°C, which was 2.2°C above normal. On Wednesday, the state capital recorded 29.7°C.Yet, Goa is currently recording one of its driest Septs in recent memory, with rainfall statistics reflecting a severe lack of precipitation across the state. Over the 23 days of this month, the state recorded 18 dry days—defined as days registering less than 5mm or zero precipitation—representing nearly two-thirds of the month.This is a sharp departure from Goa’s historical Sept climate averages, which typically bring between 260mm and 350mm of cumulative rainfall across 12 to 13 rainy days.Other wettest days so far have been on Sept 1 (19.4mm), Sept 17 (13.9mm) and Sept 4 (13.4mm). With Sept 23 marking the only date where accumulation crossed the 20mm threshold, rainfall on all other wet days remained largely muted.With only a week remaining in Sept followed by the official withdrawal of the southwest monsoon, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of light to moderate rainfall likely over Goa during its final week.
