The country has received 10 per cent excess rainfall till Friday even as the monsoon covered almost half of the landscape and entered Bihar and Jharkhand.
It is way behind schedule over Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, and merely made a token presence over Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar on Friday, all of which should have been fully covered by now.
An abundance in some parts
But entire Central India and NorthWest India have received pre-monsoon showers in abundance during this period. Only Uttar Pradesh and adjoining East India (Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal) are in deficit.
In fact, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir have received excess rainfall; Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have seen normal rainfall.
A low-pressure area had popped up over the North-West Bay of Bengal on Thursday night, indicating that the monsoon was alive and kicking, but it had found its way to Bangladesh by Friday evening.The ‘low’ had perched itself at a slot over South-West Bangladesh by Friday evening. Easterly monsoon winds emanating from the ‘low’ are forecast to fill East India and adjoining North-West India in due course.An extended range forecast for the next fortnight (June 16-29) issued by the India Met Department in association with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the All India Coordinated Research Project on Agricultural Meteorology and the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture is as follows:
June 16 to 22: The monsoon will be active over the West Coast and adjoining regions (most parts of Maharashtra, most of Karnataka, South Gujarat, Telangana, Rayalaseema, Chhattisgarh and parts of adjoining East Madhya Pradesh). Towards the East, Bengal, Odisha, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and East Uttar Pradesh will witness a wet spell.
Above-normal rainfall is likely over Konkan, Goa and adjoining regions, coastal parts of Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal and Coastal Andhra Pradesh, adjoining Jharkhand and Bihar and parts of the North-Eastern states.
June 23 to 29: The monsoon will be weak over Central India. Abovenormal rain is likely over the North-East, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and adjoining North Madhya Pradesh, North Chhattisgarh, North Odisha and parts of Konkan and Goa.