East India is undergoing an expansive phase of the monsoon, which has come at the expense of practically the rest of the country.

Monsoon otherwise stood still over the mainland, taking its time to revive after the latest away-sea storm, ‘Talim’ in the South China Sea, undermined its progress.

During the 24 hours ending this morning, Cherrapunji in Assam was near-drowned by 46 cm of extreme heavy rains.

Aiding the heavy falls was a north-south trough running down from sub-Himayalan West Bengal and Sikkim to the North Bay of Bengal.

In fact, this formation is not helpful for the larger cause of the monsoon for the rest of India since entire moisture would get offloaded in the area of the trough here.

In fact, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall to continue over Assam and Meghalaya for the next two days.

Heavy rainfall has also been forecast at one or two places over Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and coastal Karnataka during this period.  

vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in