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Monsoon reaches Delhi three days before time

– PHOTO: Sandeep Saxena

Monsoon is here: Young people enjoying the first monsoon rain in the Capital on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: The much awaited south-west monsoon has reached Delhi, three days before the normal date of June 29, announced the India Meteorological Department on Sunday. The system also advanced further over western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan, the IMD bulletin added.

The northern limit of the system passed through Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Ajmer, Pilani and Sriganganagar. With this, the monsoon now has covered most of the country barring some areas in Rajasthan. The system could cover more ground over the next three to four days, according to the weatherman. “Fairly widespread rain/thundershowers would occur over the western Himalayan region, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, east Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as well as Central, eastern and north-east India and the West Coast [during the next three days],” he added. However, as for the southern peninsular region comprising Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the rainfall activity could remain subdued at least over the next three days in the interior areas. The system had been advancing without a break since having set in over Kerala on May 29. Considering that active and break phases are an integral part of the system, meteorologists are waiting for a break sooner than later. Addressing a press conference earlier this week, IMD Director-General Ajit Tyagi had predicted that it could go into a weak phase during the first half of next month. Monsoon forecast models, he said, indicated that rainfall for the country as a whole during July could be just 93 per cent of the long period average (LPA), and that for August, 94 per cent.

Models also indicated that the rainfall during the four-month season could be below normal, at 95 per cent of the LPA, with the southern peninsular region receiving the least rainfall at 93 per cent of the region's LPA, and the north-west region getting the highest rainfall, at 97 per cent of the LPA. The rainfall over the other two regions, Central and north-eastern India, is expected to fall in between, at 95 per cent of their LPA.

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