There is some good news for citizens of Delhi and its neighbourhood. The India Meteorological Department on Friday forecast that the much awaited system could set in over Delhi over the next four to five days, or on or before normal date of June 29.
In its weekly press release issued on Friday evening, the Department said the system could also advance over most other parts of the north-west India during the next four to five days. In other words, the monsoon could be covering almost the entire country by June 29, barring some small areas in the extreme north-western region.
The monsoon has already covered a significant portion of the country. The northern limit of the system on Friday passed through Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Ajmer, Jaipur, Dholpur, Shajahanpur, Dehradun, Shimla and Jammu.
The release, however, warned that rainfall over the south interior peninsular region would remain subdued at least for the next two weeks, till about July 8.
In an update to its long term forecast for the season as a whole and the country in its entirety issued on Tuesday, the IMD has warned that though the monsoon has started off on a good note, there could be some problems going forward.
Prediction
According to the prediction, July rainfall across the country was likely to be only 93 per cent of the long period average for the month and August rainfall during June and 94 per cent of the LPA for that month.
It also predicted that, as a consequence, the season has a whole could end up with a below normal rainfall, at about 95 per cent of its LPA and that among the homogenous regions in the country, the south peninsular region was likely to be the worst hit.
The region which comprises of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep, and Andaman and Nicobar, is expected to get only 94 per cent of its LPA.
In contrast, the north-west region, which is likely to top the table, is forecast to get a rainfall of 97 per cent of its LPA for the season. [The region consists of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan].
The north-east and the Central India regions are likely to fall in between, with a rainfall of 95 per cent of their LPA for the season. [While the north-east region consists of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Sikkim besides the seven north-eastern States, Central India region consists of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Goa and Chattisgarh].
