The southwest monsoon withdrew from the entire country on Sunday, a week later than normal. The normal date for its complete retreat is October 15, but in recent years the monsoon has overstayed till the third week of October. India witnessed a normal monsoon season for the fourth consecutive year with 925 mm rainfall which was 106 per cent of the long-period average (LPA) of 880 mm.
"The Southwest Monsoon has withdrawn from the remaining parts of the country today, October 23, 2022," the India Meteorological Department said on Sunday. In its final leg, the monsoon has now withdrawn from Mumbai, Pune and Nashik, thus exiting Maharashtra. With this, most parts of the country will get to enjoy a rain-free Diwali this year.
A late surge by the monsoon in September helped cut the large deficit in rainfall in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and the northeast, but not before impacting the main paddy crop in some states.
Rains continued to linger on beyond September 30, which marks the end of the southwest monsoon season, mainly due to two cyclonic circulations active over Madhya Pradesh and south Gujarat and its interaction with the mid-latitude weather systems, which brought rains to parts of north-west and central India in October. Normally, by the second week of October, the southwest monsoon withdraws from the entire northwest, north, and many parts of the Indo-Gangetic plains spanning up to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and most of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
But this year, rainfall activity continued and was associated with two cyclonic circulations each over east Rajasthan and south Gujarat-north Maharashtra.
IMD statistics show that post-monsoon rainfall for the country between October 1 and 23 was 104 mm, almost 65 per cent more than the normal of 63.2 mm for the season.
According to the weather office, the southwest monsoon starts retreating from the northwestern parts on September 17 and withdraws from country by October 15.