Monsoon Covers Entire Country Ahead Of Schedule: Active Monsoon Conditions To Continue
The Southwest Monsoon has covered the entire country on 29th June, about nine days ahead of its scheduled date of 8th July. In its last leg, the monsoon stream lingered for 5–6 days before sweeping the remaining portions of West Uttar Prades, Delhi, Haryana, and Rajasthan. The monsoon arrived before the normal date over most parts of the country, except Gangetic West Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand. Earlier, the monsoon had arrived over mainland Kerala on 24th May 2025 and Northeast India. So, both the initial onset and final coverage over the country were earlier than expected by over a week.
Also Read: Monsoon Arrives In Delhi: Rainy Week Ahead
Seasonal rainfall was nearly 30% deficient in the first half of June for the country. Courtesy of a series of low-pressure areas and circulations, the monsoon current gathered pace and intensity to cover the shortfall and go surplus for the opening month of the monsoon. In anticipation, Kharif sowing had gathered momentum and taken the lead to cover over 10% more area compared to last year’s figures. Also, reservoir levels registered a significant rise in the eastern, central, and western parts of the country. Further, July is the most crucial and wettest month of the monsoon, during which farmers cover the maximum sowing area to ensure a normal harvest, leaving adequate overlap for Rabi crop sowing before November.
In the last 25 years, since 2001, the monsoon has covered the entire country in June on six occasions. The earliest ever coverage was on 16th June 2013, when over 30% of the country was covered in a single sweep, from Uttar Pradesh to Rajasthan and Gujarat, across the national capital and the mountains of North India. Seasonal monsoon rainfall on the earlier five occasions has varied from above normal in 2013 and 2020 to below normal at 91% of LPA in 2018. The year 2015 suffered drought conditions with total rainfall at 86% of LPA. This only goes on to show that early coverage of monsoon over the country has no direct linkage with the overall performance of the season. However, the early monsoon sweep across the country does boost and raise the morale of the farming community and the supply chain sector.
The monsoon is expected to remain active and could be vigorous at times in some pockets over the next 10 days. The large beneficiaries will be Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. However, the South Peninsula, including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, is likely to receive inadequate rains, raising the seasonal shortfall during this period. Even the deep inland pockets of Vidarbha and Marathwada may miss the ‘good show’ of monsoon rains, seen elsewhere in the eastern, central, western, and northern parts of the country.
