Monsoon update: Southwest Monsoon has set in over Kerala and advanced into most parts of Northeast India on Thursday, May 30, 2024. According to MeT department, Southwest Monsoon was spurred on by Cyclone Remal and hence has made an early onset.
The normal monsoon onset date for Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, and Assam is June 5.
From the past one week, major parts of the country has been reeling under extreme heat wave. Large parts of northern and central India were in the grip of extreme heatwave conditions on May 29 with the mercury crossing 50 degrees Celsius in Rajasthan's Churu and Haryana's Sirsa and settling nine notches above normal in Delhi.
Monsoon is critical for India's agricultural landscape, with 52 per cent of the net cultivated area relying on it. It is also crucial for replenishing reservoirs critical for drinking water, apart from power generation across the country. June and July are considered the most important monsoon months for agriculture because most of the sowing for the Kharif crop takes place during this period.
