There could be some good news for north India on the monsoon front. The India Meteorological Department on Sunday forecast that the system was likely to cover the entire country in the next 3-4 days.
“Conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of the monsoon,” said an IMD bulletin.
The forecast, however, came with a caveat. The advance of the system over parts of Uttar Pradesh might be “feeble.” The normal date for entry into the State was June 14. So, there was already a delay of about 20 days.
The monsoon could set in over Delhi in two days. The normal date of onset was June 29. The earliest onset during the last 30 years was in 2008 (June 15) and the most delayed onset was in 1987 (July 26).
Meanwhile, the system has further advanced into Gujarat, most parts of Madhya Pradesh and some more parts of southeast Rajasthan and some parts of south Uttar Pradesh.
Deficit
As on Saturday, the country faced a rainfall deficit of 14 per cent, with the northwest region suffering the worst, with a deficiency of 25 per cent.
The shortfall is the maximum in Uttar Pradesh — the western part has a deficiency of 76 per cent and the eastern part 69 per cent.
The Delhi-Haryana region comes next with a deficit of 55 per cent. It is followed by east Rajasthan and east Madhya Pradesh (minus 49 per cent each), and Gujarat (minus 47 per cent).
The situation is not too bright in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, west Madhya Pradesh and Bihar also, where the deficiency is of the order of minus 45 per cent, 41, 36 and 34.
The rainfall situation over Punjab and Uttarakhand is also not up to the mark. While the former has a deficiency of 32 per cent, the latter has a shortfall of 30 per cent.
The IMD has predicted a normal rainfall for the country as a whole and for the season in its entirety, with a precipitation of 102 per cent of the long period average.
Last year, the department had predicted a rainfall of 93 per cent. But, the final tally was a mere 78 per cent.
PTI reports:
The monsoon advanced to parts of north India bringing heavy rain which led to a significant drop in temperature and gave respite to people from hot and humid conditions.
After a delay of over a fortnight, the south-west monsoon descended over parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Chandigarh.
Gurgaon in Haryana recorded 160 mm rainfall while Nangal Dam and its catchment areas received 47 mm of rain since Saturday evening. The downpour resulted in considerable drop in mercury but the high humidity posed problems for the citizens.
Monsoon rain lashed Udaipur, Kota, Jhalawar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan since Saturday night. However, it is yet to progress to the north-west regions of Jodhpur, Barmer, Jaislamer, Bikaner, Churu and Sikar where the hot conditions prevailed.
Delhi too experienced rain which brought down the temperature considerably. However, the Met Department termed them as ‘pre-monsoon showers' and said the monsoon will hit the city in the next couple of days.
Correction
In the above report Jaisalmer was misspelt as Jaislamer.
