The monsoon has entered Mumbai, a week behind schedule, on Sunday.
Its bold up-country lunge of the northern limit of the monsoon coincided with the peaking of typhoon ‘Guchol' in the northwest Pacific.
WEAKENING STORM
The storm will start weakening from early morning on Monday, slowly setting the stage for southwesterly flows to consolidate over the Bay of Bengal.
The churn is forecast to strengthen an existing cyclonic circulation into a low-pressure area, which would anchor the flows and drive rains into east India.
An India Meteorological Department (IMD) update said on Sunday that the monsoon has entered the Konkan, interior Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
It has fully covered the Bay of Bengal, more parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, most of interior Maharashtra as also parts of extreme south Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
The northern limit passed through Veraval, Navsari, Akola, Brahmapuri, Kanker, Keonjhargarh, Midnapore, Burdwan, Malda, Baghdogra and Gangtok.
BEST PHASE YET
This made for the best overnight progress of the monsoon thus far during this season after it made a delayed onset along the west coast and totted up a 42 per cent deficit.
The IMD assessed conditions are favourable for further advance into Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, entire Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal and Sikkim by Wednesday.
Some parts of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar may also get covered during this phase.
A warning valid for next two days said that heavy rains are likely over Konkan, Goa, coastal Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, West Bengal and Sikkim.
OFFSHORE TROUGH
On Sunday, the offshore trough lay extended along the entire length of the west coast from Gujarat coast to Kerala.
This is an elongated trough of low pressure along the west coast, and is normally considered a harbinger of an active phase of the monsoon.
But the track of the low-pressure area would need to be tracked closely once it crosses land and drags in the current.
Some of the weather models do not show much progress for the ‘low' into the farming heartland of the country.