There’s a 60% chance of drought across India this year, private weather company Skymet said on Friday in a revised forecast downgrading its monsoon prediction to 91% of normal. In April, it had predicted 94% rains in the country. The outlook was particularly bleak for northwest and central-west India, where Skymet said the probability of drought was 80% and 75%, respectively. Drought was defined as rains being more than 10% below the long period average. The company said rains in July were likely to be 7% below normal. “We see two main periods when widespread rains are expected in July. One around 6th and the other around 15th. If either of these events fail, then we would have a really big deficit,” said Jatin Singh, CEO of Skymet. The forecaster sees monsoon picking up slightly in August and September. Both months may see 98% rains. Skymet released its first monsoon prediction on April 15 this year. It had then forecast 94% rains during the June-September season. Its prediction for June was 90%, whereas actual rains turned out to be way below, at 57% of normal.

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