Monsoon revival in couple of days: IMD

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 21

Amid concerns over “unusual” patterns this season affecting its performance and end-of-June arrival date over the Northwest, the Southwest Monsoon is expected to revive around June 24.

While the Northern Limit of Monsoon (NLM) continues to hold on to its June 12 position, passing through Thane, Ahmednagar, Buldhana, Amravati, Gondia, Titlagarh, Cuttack, Midnapore, Goalpara and Baghdogra (exactly where it was when it entered the weak phase), the IMD is now predicting a change in situation around June 24.

Predicting widespread rain along the West Coast, Northeast and East, it has also forecast fairly widespread rain with heavy rainfall at isolated places over South and Central India, isolated to scattered rainfall over Northwest and heavy rainfall in East Uttar Pradesh between June 26 and 28.

According to the latest update by India’s official weather forecaster, monsoon circulation is likely to improve around June 24 due to “expected movement of active phase of Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) to west Equatorial Indian Ocean and adjoining Arabian Sea during next two-to-three days.

As a result, the monsoon is likely to further advance over remaining parts of Assam, some more parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and some parts of Jharkhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh between June 23 and 25.

Even as the country awaits monsoon revival, there are concerns over “unusual” behaviour patterns observed around the monsoon current this year. Its initial movement towards the mainland was affected by the twin cyclones in the Arabian Sea.

Later, the weather system that brought rain to Kerala around May-end moved away from the mainland to rain over central parts of the Arabian Sea. This in itself was considered unusual as largely the circulations move inland and not outward towards the sea.