With more rains forecast, Monsoon's exit delayed

New Delhi, Aug 29: With more rains forecast in coming days, the process of withdrawal of the monsoon from extreme west Rajasthan is likely to get delayed. Normally the withdrawal begins on 1 September.

Most parts of North-West India, interior parts of Peninsular India and most parts of the West Coast, saw fresh wet spell on Tuesday. Both these 'arms' of the monsoon converged over parts of North-West India to generate moderate to heavy rain over West Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and the neighbourhood, as well as over Uttarakahand, says a Businessline report.

The India Met Department (IMD) expects a successor low-pressure area to take shape over the North Bay in three days and sustain the rains over East and North-East India, it said.

This will lead to the delay in withdrawal from Rajasthan that normally starts on September 1.

Meanwhile, the weather department has predicted the weather for the next five days starting from Wednesday to Sunday. According to IMD, heavy rains will continue to lash several states till September 2.

Heavy rain at isolated places is likely over East Uttar Pradesh on August 30; over Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on August 31; over East Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on September 1; over East Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on September 2.In its prediction from September 2 to September 4, the Met department has said that widespread rainfall activity with isolated heavy falls is very likely over northeast, east and parts of central and northwest India.

It has also predicted scattered to fairly widespread rainfall activity is likely over the rest of the country except for Jammu and Kashmir, West Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi and some parts of southern part of the country where the rainfall activity is likely to be isolated.

Rain deficit status

More than 40 per cent districts in South India witnessed deficient rainfall this monsoon season, the India Meteorological Department data showed, despite the southern state of Kerala experiencing excessive precipitation.

Of the 125 districts in the region, 54 reported deficient rainfall and another two were "largely" deficient.

The worst hit state by deficient rainfall in South India was Tamil Nadu, according to the IMD data.

Of its 32 districts, 20 received deficient rainfall while one reported large deficiency.

In neighbouring Kerala, where flooding and landslides due to monsoon rains claimed more than 290 lives and displaced over 10 lakh people since June 8, of the 14 districts, 10 received excess rainfall and two received "largely excess" rainfall.

Of the 31 districts in Telangana, six reported large deficiency; all four districts of Puducherry reported deficiency.

Lakshadweep, too, received deficient rainfall.

All four districts of Rayalaseema region and two of the 11 districts in Andhra Pradesh received deficient rainfall.

At the country-level, the IMD said there was a 27 per cent rainfall deficiency in east and northeast India, followed by minus 3 and minus 1 in northwest and central India respectively.

The south peninsula division is the only one to report 10 per cent more rainfall than the normal.

The monsoon arrived on June 29, three days ahead of its normal schedule date of June 1.