A woman crosses the road during rains in Mumbai on Monday. PTI Photo
Fifty-one days after its onset on May 30, the southwest monsoon has covered the entire country, the India Meteorological Department declared on Wednesday. This is the longest time taken by the monsoon since 2011 to cover the entire country. According to IMD, the normal date of monsoon’s advance over the whole of the country is July 15, with about a week’s variation considered normal. As the season is nearing the half-way mark, the monsoon’s progress has been largely good with most states and UTs receiving normal or above normal rainfall.
Kerala, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Mizoram have received rainfall lower than what is normal during this time of the year. Commenting on the monsoon’s advance, A K Srivastava, head of the climate monitoring and analysis group at IMD, Pune, said, “Monsoon has made good progress so far, making timely arrival at most regions. However, there was a 10-day delay for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.” This year, the monsoon remained sluggish in the first two-weeks of July and its advance in the central and western parts of the country was delayed. On Wednesday, the rainfall showed a surplus by 1 per cent. Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh, and also Andhra Pradesh and Odisha witnessed heavy downpour.
