After initial hiccups, monsoon covers entire India 6 days early

Karam Prakash

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New Delhi, July 2

The southwest monsoon on Sunday advanced further and covered the remaining parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. With this, the monsoon has covered the entire country, six days before the expected date (July 8).

IMD predicts normal rainfall in July

• The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that the rainfall in July, the peak month of the monsoon season, the rainfall will most likely be normal —- 94 to 106 per cent of the long period average (LPA)
• The LPA of rainfall over the country in July, based on the 1971-2020 data, is about 280.4 mm

After an initial deceleration owing to Cyclone Biparjoy, the southwest monsoon accelerated its advancement in the third week of June and covered over 50 per cent of the country in a week.

The southwest monsoon onset over Kerala was on June 8 after having missed the expected date of June 1.

“There was a delay in advancement over Southern Peninsular and adjoining central India by 7-12 days, and Northeast India by five days. But monsoon had covered most parts of the country, including some parts of Rajasthan, adjoining areas of Haryana and Punjab, by June 28,” said a senior official of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

As per the IMD rainfall data, rains were below normal until June 24. However, there was a significant rise thereafter. But overall, the rainfall in June was below normal. In June, there were 377 very heavy rainfall events against 178 same month last year. The majority of the heavy rainfall events occurred in Rajasthan, which is part of the low rainfall zone.