New Delhi: The southwest monsoon is expected to reach the national capital in the next 48 hours – almost two weeks ahead of schedule. It has already advanced into parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab today, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday. Monsoon is likely to bring thunderstorm and moderate to heavy rain in most parts of Delhi and Haryana today, the weather office predicted.

“Thunderstorm with moderate to heavy intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of many places of North West Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi, South West Delhi, South Delhi (Kanjhawala, Mundaka, Pashchim Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, Rajauri Garden, Patel Nagar, Delhi Cantt, Vasant Vihar, Vsant Kunj, IGI Airport, Jafarpur, Nazafgarh, Dwarka, Palam, Lodi Road, Safdarjung, R K Puram) Gurugram, Manesar, Kharkhoda, Bahdurgarh, Mahendargarh, Narnaul (Haryana),” the IMD tweeted. The weather office also predicted moderate to heavy rainfall for adjoining areas of the national capital territory region.

Monsoon has already arrived in parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal and Chhattisgarh, bringing rain in many parts of the states. Monsoon has also advanced into the remaining parts of Northwest Bay of Bengal, parts of Odisha, most parts of West Bengal, and some parts of Jharkhand and Bihar.

Experts say a low-pressure area that has formed in the northwest part of the Bay of Bengal – in an area adjoining the Odisha and Gangetic Bengal coasts – may have speeded up the monsoon.