Good El Nino? How a bad monsoon left city drenched

NEW DELHI: The capital defied the odds this monsoon. As of Sept 16, Delhi had a season's rainfall surplus of 8% in a meteorological subdivision (Haryana) that's reeling under a 23% deficit and a region (northwest India) that has logged a 10% shortfall. The season's peculiar rainfall pattern indicates that a strengthening El Nino as well as climate change may have played a role in giving the capital an unlikely monsoon bounty.A look at the season's district-level rainfall map of the region shows Delhi literally at the edge of the good monsoon zone this year (see graphic).