Monsoon enters South Rajasthan four days earlier

Hyper-activity in the seas around Gujarat has pushed the western end of the monsoon into South Rajasthan, early by at least four days for this time of the year, even as it is delayed by 12 days over the rest of North-West India.

The ongoing vigorous phase over North India should help cut down this lag. The India Met Department (IMD) has maintained the watch for rapid coverage of the monsoon across the region during the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, the northern limit of the monsoon linked Barmer and Chittorgarh in Rajasthan with Guna and Satna in Madhya Pradesh and Patna in Bihar.

Parallely, the monsoon-hosting trough lay extended from West Rajasthan to East-Central Bay of Bengal, cutting across North Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, an alignment that is considered most ideal. Favourable conditions are, therefore, evolving for the monsoon to cover the rest of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, East Uttar Pradesh, entire West Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and most parts of Rajasthan during the next three days. This would mean that the monsoon would be able to breeze through with its coverage of the entire country ahead of the July 15 schedule, making good the delay encountered mid-way over Central India.

By Tuesday evening, satellite maps revealed that Central Gujarat, most of West Madhya Pradesh, East Rajasthan, parts of South-West Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab and South-West Jammu & Kashmir had come under a heavy spell of rain.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is of the view that flows over the Arabian Sea and Central India would strengthen from Wednesday which would eventually help with the formation of a fresh circulation in the Bay.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the monsoon is expected to continue its northwards progression over India. The northern limit is now near Central India, slightly further south than its average position for this time of year.

It assessed that the monsoon was in a ‘vigorous phase’ across most of the Indian Ocean region. China and Myanmar bore the brunt of its fury after a ‘step-up’ meteorological feature across the North-West Pacific added more bite to it.