The Southwest Monsoon has covered the entire country, 17 days ahead of its normal schedule. This has brightened the prospects of bumper kharif crops and brought cheers to millions of farmers.
“Usually most part of the country is covered by July 1 and most parts of the northwestern India in the next 15 days. This year, because of the western disturbance, we have a lot of rain in northwest India, which has helped in swift advancement of monsoon,” IMD officials said.
The IMD also predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall for several parts of the country over the next three days.
“Western disturbance is a weather system associated with rainfall in the northern part of India. Only Gujarat and some parts of Rajasthan are left to be covered by monsoon showers, and these regions are expected to get rain in the next two days,” officials added.
The weather office declared the onset of monsoon over northwest India on Thursday, after the region recorded widespread rainfall in the past couple of days. Rainfall recorded in the region on Thursday was two-and-a-half times more than normal.
“Countrywide rainfall remains 6 per cent below normal since June 1 and the first month of the monsoon season may just close on the threshold of the normal rainfall range, as the current shortfall in the figures may reduce in the next two days. June will end close to normal — 5 per cent is a very common variability, it is considered normal. You should have a standard deviation of around 12-13 per cent for normal/below normal,” officials said.
The arrival date and the intensity of monsoon in India are intricately linked with the country’s agricultural sector. A good and timely monsoon has the potential of being a big boon for the economy. Rain also ensures relief from the searing and scorching heat of the summer months in the country.
Apart from IMD, private weather monitoring agencies like Skymet Weather too have been tracking monsoon and have confirmed that rain clouds have covered the whole of the country. Moving forward, Skymet Weather has predicted rainfall in most parts of the country, including the capital city of New Delhi.
The Southwest Monsoon saw a brief hiatus in its movement in the third week of this month, and revived only on last Sunday. Overall, rainfall has improved since monsoon regained momentum and the weather office expects normal to above-normal rainfall over the country during the next two weeks.