The southwest monsoon reached Maharashtra on Thursday, bringing respite to the state where many parts have been reeling under intense heat, and is expected to advance over Mumbai, remaining parts of Karnataka, coastal Andhra Pradesh and southern parts of Chhattisgarh in the next three to four days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The progress of the monsoon has been nearly normal till now but it is yet to cover some areas, resulting in continuous high temperatures and heatwave conditions in those regions, the weather body added.
“Once the monsoon’s northern limit reaches parts of central India next week, it would have covered half the country. Areas covered by the monsoon are unlikely to record heatwave conditions any further. The quantum of rainfall for June remains normal so far,” IMD director general M Mohapatra said.
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The northern limit of monsoon is currently passing through Ratnagiri and Solapur in Maharashtra, Medak in Telangana, Bhadrachalam and Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh and Islampur in West Bengal.
The monsoon normally makes an onset over Mumbai around June 10-11. On Thursday, it advanced into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, most parts of Karnataka, some more parts of Maharashtra, Telangana, coastal Andhra Pradesh and west central and northwest Bay of Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}The monsoon normally makes an onset over Mumbai around June 10-11. On Thursday, it advanced into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, most parts of Karnataka, some more parts of Maharashtra, Telangana, coastal Andhra Pradesh and west central and northwest Bay of Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}In a statement, IMD said: “Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, remaining parts of Karnataka & coastal Andhra Pradesh, some more parts of Maharashtra (including Mumbai), Telangana, some parts of south Chhattisgarh and south Odisha, remaining parts of west central & more parts of northwest Bay of Bengal during next 3-4 days.”
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The weather body said rain and thunderstorms are likely to be expected over northwest India till Friday. Heatwave conditions are likely in isolated pockets over parts of east India, Uttar Pradesh and north Madhya Pradesh in the next five days, it said.
Heatwave conditions have been prevailing over Haryana since May 17 and over Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh since May 18. It hit Maharashtra early this summer, prevailed over parts of Mumbai and even hit areas such as Kerala, resort towns of Ooty (Tamil Nadu) and Matheran (Maharashtra) in the Western Ghats, and Bengaluru, which usually does not experience such weather, especially in April.
Mahesh Palawat, vice president, climate and meteorology at Skymet Weather, said: “Monsoon progression has been near normal so far. However, rains have reduced over Peninsular India. In the next three to four days, monsoon will advance to Pune, Mumbai, etc. There is a monsoon surge over the western arm. We cannot say immediately if it will advance on time over northwest India, which is affected by high temperatures.”