Monsoon
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook. Almost half of the world's population lives in areas affected by the monsoons of Asia. The heavy rains begin almost suddenly in June and usually last until September. This year, farmers in Nepal are worried that the rainfall was less than usual. But as correspondent Manisha Aryal reports, meteorologists aren't convinced.

Knee-deep in mud, in the rice field where she has trapped rain water, Parvati Bidari plants rice saplings in rows. As she works, she sings about eating yoghurt with beaten rice, about going to the fair, about a love that drove away in a truck to India and about Indra, the rain-god. Agriculture in Nepal is mostly rain-fed and as rice is a water-intensive crop, every year, farmers in Nepal pray for a good monsoon.

"It has not rained enough this year", says Parvati Bidari, She says she is worried about this year's harvest. But Nagmindra Dahal, a Meteorology Professor at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University does not agree that it has rained less this year than the last. The total rainfall, says Dahal, has been the same as every year.

"Generally, if it rains with sustained intensity, the farmers are very happy because that means a good planting season and a good harvest. This year, however, the rains were uneven- there were cloudbursts and landslides in some areas and others only got the minimum amount of rain".

However, farmers who depend on rainfall for agriculture do plan for contingencies like these. As for Parvati, she says she will just have to dip into the silo for the grain left over from last years' harvest.

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and is supported by the National Science Foundation.