Monsoon sets in four days early in Pune

THE INDIA Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday announced the southwest monsoon’s arrival over Pune. This is among the most early-realised arrivals of monsoon in the recent years over Pune, where June 10 is the usual onset date.

With favourable conditions for monsoon building, the city and most parts in Pune district have been reporting continuous rainfall for the past three days. Heavy rainfall was reported during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, with Lohegaon station recording 60.5 mm in the past 24 hours.

Including Sunday’s advancement, it will be for the fourth straight day when the monsoon made steady and swift progress. On Sunday, the northern limit of monsoon passed through Alibag, Pune, Medak, Nalgonda and Sriharikota on the mainland. The monsoon has covered entire northeastern states on the day.

With this, the monsoon has covered about 30 percent geographical area of Maharashtra in the past two days. It is active over Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Solapur, Pune and Osmanabad districts where the 24-hour rainfall recorded on Sunday were 32 mm in Satara, 28 mm in Mahabaleshwar, 21 mm in Sangli, 11 mm in Harnai, 8 mm in Dahanu and 4 mm in Solapur.

The presence of two upper air cyclonic circulations — one over the Konkan region and another over south Gujarat, along with an off-shore trough running between south Maharashtra and Kerala — will cause isolated heavy spells over Konkan, Goa and Madhya Maharashtra till Tuesday.

“Thereafter, the rainfall activity will reduce as the strength of the westerly winds coming in from the Arabian Sea will decrease. Rainfall will improve by June 11 over the state,” said Anupam Kashyapi, head, weather forecasting division, IMD, Pune.

The IMD has not mentioned any date for further advancement of the monsoon over the country, which means all regions on the north of Alibag, Pune and Osmanabad, including Mumbai, will have to wait at least a week for the monsoon’s arrival this year. Experts hinted that the monsoon’s advancement could slow down due to lack of favourable weather conditions.

Even if the monsoon is expected to make any further advance in another week or so, it will not be a delayed onset over Mumbai, north Madhya Maharashtra and Vidarbha. This is because the monsoon made early onset by two to four days over Maharashtra this year.