After delayed onset and sluggish start, southwest monsoon has picked up pace . Northern Limit of Monsoon (NLM) remained stalled between 10th and 21stJune. Monsoon deficit mounted up to 55% till middle of June, leaving heartland parched and soaring. Monsoon for Mumbai remained oblivious for long and nearly reached the longest ever delay of 27thJune in 2009. There is a pleasant twist in the weather conditions with monsoon advancing and rains soaking the needy pats of the country. However, some of the sub divisions still await typical monsoon showers of decent spread, intensity and duration.
Between 22nd and 25th June, monsoon sprinted across the central and northern parts covering Konkan , Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh ,Delhi, Uttrakhand and some parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu& Kashmir and Ladakh. It is likely to advance further over more parts in the next 48hours and possibly reach the last posts of West Rajasthan before the due date of 08thJuly. Earlier, another biggest leap was taken in June2013 when monsoon travelled from East Uttar Pradesh to West Rajasthan across the plains and mountains of North India on 16th June. Though, this leap had proved tragic for the state of Uttrakhand, suffering enormous natural calamity.
Courtesy, low pressure area over Bay of Bengal (BoB), both the monsoon arms strengthened and pushed the monsoon current to the hinterland of central and northern parts. The low pressure area now lies over Odisha and Chhattisgarh. It is likely to move over East Madhya Pradesh and later West Madhya Pradesh. Heavy rains are expected over central parts across Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Downpour is also likely over Konkan, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttrakhand during remaining days of June.
National capital Delhi and financial capital Mumbai witnessed unique coincidence of simultaneous arrival of monsoon on 25thJune 2023. This was a repeat performance after a long hall of 62 years. Albeit, the outlandish event was on account of delayed knock of monsoon in Mumbai. Now, Mumbai is all set to meet its monthly target of rainfall over the next 4-5 days.
Generous pulse of monsoon will drag the NLM over most northern and western parts shortly. Widespread rains, heavy at few places will reduce the seasonal deficit, possibly to 10-12% by the last day of June. Parts of Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh may have to wait for the next wave to reduce their margins.
