The India Meteorological Department said on Sunday that the southwest monsoon, which had shifted northward to the Himalayan foothills bringing extremely heavy rains in the east and Northeast, has started moving south, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday. Its southward movement will bring rain to northwest and central India between July 14 and July 16, the weather department said.
The IMD said the western end of the monsoon trough is passing through Ganganagar in Rajasthan, Delhi and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and the eastern end continues to run near the Himalayas. It added that a cyclonic circulation over East Bihar is likely to continue over Northeast and East India on Monday and Tuesday.
Northeast India, West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will continue to receive heavy rainfall like last week, but the intensity will be lower, the weatherman said. Delhi is expected to receive heavy rains on July 14 and July 15.
“As the monsoon trough shifts southwards, rains are expected in Delhi also but it will be in light to moderate category,” regional weather forecasting centre head Kuldeep Shrivastava said. “Overcast skies will continue. Wind direction, which has been largely westerly because of the trough shifting northward, will switch to easterly now.”
The country has so far received 14% excess monsoon – 20% excess in central India, 16% excess in south Peninsula, 14% excess in East and Northeast India, and 3% deficient in Northwest India, the IMD said. There has been no drought-like situation anywhere in the country so far. The standardised precipitation index, which measures drought, shows many districts in eastern, central and peninsular India in “severely wet” category, and others in “mildly wet” category.
“This monsoon, the Arabian Sea has been unusually active starting with cyclone Nisarga which helped with monsoon onset,” RK Jenamani, senior scientist at National Weather Forecasting Centre said. “The moisture feed from Bay of Bengal in comparison is negligible. An intense low-pressure system also over Saurashtra last week which brought extremely heavy rains there.”
Yellow alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar
Meanwhile, a yellow alert has been issued for Mumbai, Thane and Palghar districts of Maharashtra for Monday and Tuesday, The Indian Express reported. The weather bureau has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places in these districts on July 15. There have been light to moderate showers in Mumbai for the past few days.
“There is a possibility of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Konkan, including Mumbai, and around on Tuesday and Wednesday as per the IMD’s model guidance,” IMD Mumbai Deputy Director General (Western Region) KS Hosalikar said. From July 1 to 5.30 pm on July 12, Mumbai received 690.4 mm rain, which is 82.1% of the month’s average.
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