-Bloomberg   Actual rainfall may be five per cent more or less than the prediction The monsoon in India, which provides about 70 per cent of annual rainfall, will be normal this year amid forecasts for the emergence of an El Niño that previously caused droughts, government officials said. Rain could be 96 per cent of a 50-year average of 89 cm (35 inches) in the June-September period, said two officials with direct knowledge...

-AFP SYDNEY: Wildfires are "absolutely" linked to global warming and increasingly intense heatwaves, the UN climate chief has said, as bushfires burned out of control in Australia. The comments come as debate rages in Australia -- whose new Prime Minister Tony Abbott once described the science behind man-made climate change as "absolute crap" -- about whether there is a link between the infernos and global warming. Asked in an interview with CNN if...

-The Times of India Though rains have lashed most parts of the country in the past few days, raising hopes of wiping out deficiency, a strong likelihood of the emergence of rain-interrupting El Nino weather pattern in September is still keeping weathermen on tenterhooks. The El Nino conditions, known to cause dry weather, are likely to disrupt the monsoon's progress which has reduced the overall rain deficit from 19% in July to...

While any loss in production following the dry spell will further hit the growth story, it will also push up food inflation. considerably. Once again the rain gods are playing truant. With 31 per cent shortfall in June, and with an expectation of only 70 per cent of the predicted 96 per cent rainfall for the July-August months, crucial for farming operations, kharif sowings have already been hit.   In June alone,...

Weather conditions promoting El Nino persistent, says Met department; drought feared In its first monsoon forecast in late April, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had announced that monsoons would be normal this year and there was a little chance of El Nino—associated with dry spells west of the Pacific—arriving in the second half of the season. But of late, IMD seems to have shifted its stand. Now the weather agency is...