Guwahati, Nov. 10 -- A spell of rain does not necessarily mean the monsoon has arrived. Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and Gauhati University have developed a new method to identify when the monsoon establishes itself over a particular location, distinguishing sustained rainfall linked to the larger weather system from short-lived local showers.

The approach could help improve decisions on sowing, water-resource management, food security and flood preparedness by providing a more reliable indication of when the monsoon has actually set in.

The study, published in the Journal of Climate of the American Meteorological Society, uses a climate-network framework to track how rainfall onset at differen...