Parts of north India will have to wait for the monsoon a little longer as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday predicted that its progress could slow down due to approaching westerlies.
The IMD had predicted that the southwest monsoon was expected to reach the national capital by June 15. However, under the current circumstances, it is unlikely to happen, IMD Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra said.
The Northern Limit of Monsoon (NLM) continues to pass through Diu, Surat, Nandurbar, Bhopal, Nowgong, Hamirpur, Barabanki, Bareilly, Saharanpur, Ambala and Amritsar, the IMD said.
"The southwest monsoon has so far advanced into the entire peninsular (south India), east central and east and northeastern India and some parts of northwest India in association with active monsoon circulations and formation of a low pressure area without any hiatus,” the IMD said.
"However due to approaching mid-latitude westerlies winds further progress of monsoon over remaining parts of northwest India is likely to be slow,” it added.
The progress of monsoon is being monitored continuously and further updates will be provided on a daily basis, the IMD said.
The southwest monsoon reaches west Rajasthan by the first week of July. The region is also its last outpost in the country to cover. It reaches northwest Rajasthan late and also withdraws from there early.
The southwest monsoon made an onset over Kerala on June 3, two days after its normal date. But then it made rapid progress covering many parts of east, west, south and central India before the normal date.
On Sunday, the IMD said monsoon had covered Madhya Pradesh, entire Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar, most parts of east Uttar Pradesh, some parts of west Uttar Pradesh, entire Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad, some parts of north Haryana, Chandigarh and north Punjab.
"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into most parts of Madhya Pradesh; remaining parts east Uttar Pradesh; Delhi; some parts of west Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab during next 48 hours,” the IMD had said on Sunday.
However, it revised its forecast on Monday.
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