India, Sept. 30 -- The official monsoon season that runs from June 1 to September 30 ends today. According to IMD's gridded data - the only dataset that allows one to look at rainfall long term - the level of rain this monsoon is likely to rank 48th highest. However, an HT analysis shows that there is good reason to look beyond the headline rainfall number, both absolute and relative, for this year's monsoon. Here is why.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times....