In a dramatic development, the South-West Monsoon has advanced and covered almost the entire country in one swoop in just about 12 hours, barring some areas in Rajasthan.
Even as of Sunday evening, the India Meteorological Department had predicted that the monsoon was likely to reach Delhi in a day or two and subsequently the other parts of north India in another two to three days only.
But, by Monday morning, the situation had changed: the mid-day bulletin of the IMD announced that the monsoon has not only arrived over Delhi, but also covered almost every other part of the region, except some pockets of Rajasthan.
The bulletin further predicted that the left-out areas too would be covered over the next two days.
The overnight development was, however, not a uniformly smooth affair. The bulletin noted that the advance of the system over the eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh was not as strong as in other areas: “the advance of the monsoon over east Uttar Pradesh was feeble,” it said.
Ambala in Punjab took the cake in terms of the quantum of rainfall during the 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Monday. The city registered a whopping 17 cm of precipitation during the period.
In Delhi, the weather station at Safdarjung airport recorded six cm and Palam airport three cm.
The IMD has forecast that fairly widespread rain or thundershowers would continue to occur over Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, West Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh during the next two days.
Thereafter, the rains over the region would decrease, with the rain belt moving eastwards, resulting in increased rainfall over the remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, as also Bihar, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim and the north-eastern States.
Relief for policy-makers
The arrival of the monsoon over north India should come as a relief for policy-makers and other stakeholders, who were worried as the system remained almost stationary for nearly two weeks from June 18 after reaching up to the middle of the country.
A break came around July 2, with the formation of a low pressure area over coastal Orissa and adjoining north-west Bay of Bengal. As the system moved westwards, the northern limit of the system also began to move northwards albeit slowly.
The clincher came on Sunday night when the system moved over to Rajasthan and interacted with a western disturbance that prevailing over Jammu and Kashmir and its neighbourhood.
This brought rainfall to Delhi and other parts of the north India and pushed up the northern limit of the system to cover almost the entire country, barring a pocket in the western-most part of Rajasthan.
The entry of the monsoon into north India is, however, not in textbook style. For such an arrival, a low pressure should have formed in the northern part of Bay of Bengal, which would have then moved in a north-westerly direction across the Gangetic plains, first bringing rains to Uttar Pradesh and then to Delhi, and Rajasthan.
But then, as a senior meteorologist pointed out, “what was needed was rains and that has occurred in good measure and is expected to continue for at least some more days. It does not matter whether it is textbook style or otherwise.”
