Scientists have blamed this year's drought on a rare fierce war of temperatures over the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, which prevented formation of monsoon clouds.
Despite its early onset over Kerala, the southwest monsoon played truant for most of June this year due to unusual heating up of the Indian Ocean as compared to the Bay of Bengal, senior meteorologists P A Francis and Sulochana Gadgil have found.
Indian monsoon is sustained by formation of clouds over a warm Bay. Normally, the sea surface temperatures in the Bay are slightly higher than sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Indian Ocean region.
Analysis of sea surface temperatures for June showed that the Bay was colder than the equatorial Indian Ocean which was warmer than average
