India, May 28 -- This May is, thus far, the wettest in India in 125 years, the period for which India Meteorological Department (IMD) has published gridded data, which allows detailed analysis of rainfall. An HT analysis of this data shows that the month will end up as the third wettest May since 1901 even if there is no rain in the remaining four days. While the early arrival of the monsoon has aided this trend, frequent storms across the country even before monsoon's arrival are a big reason.

According to IMD's gridded data - it gives average rain for grids or boxes bound by two latitudes and longitudes 0.25 degrees apart that can be aggregated to calculate average rain for India - India has received an average of 100.7 mm rain up to 8...