Boosted by two low-pressure systems—one over southeast Arabian which later turned into ‘severe cyclone’ Nisarga and another over the Bay of Bengal—the Southwest Monsoon has arrived in Gujarat and East Uttar Pradesh, the IMD said on Monday.
With conditions becoming favourable for its further advance into UP and Madhya Pradesh over the next 48 hours, meteorologists are predicting an early arrival of monsoon in the Northwest—including Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the IMD said another low-pressure area is likely to form over North Bay of Bengal and its surrounding areas around June 19.
As per forecaster Skymet, until now, the 2020 Monsoon has progressed almost in the “copybook style”.
“It kept its date with the normal onset over Kerala. We think it can arrive over Delhi by June 25-26. Pre-monsoon rains will pick pace from June 20,” says Mahesh Palawat of Skymet.
“The onset over Gujarat is well ahead of time. Usually, monsoon reaches parts of Kutch around June 25, this time it is almost 10 days early. Likewise in the Central and Eastern parts of the country, either it is on time or slightly ahead by a day or two,” says Palawat.
While the initial push to monsoon over west coast came via Nisarga, in the second week of June, the low-pressure area over Bengal became instrumental in boosting its progress in Eastern and Central India.
“We expect rain to continue with moderate-to-heavy intensity over Eastern and Central parts of the country, including Gujarat. The weather of hills, as well as Northwest India, will remain almost dry and hot for at least the next 3 to 4 days.”
“Isolated pockets of Rajasthan can also experience heatwave conditions. The rains are expected to reach Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and parts of Jammu and Kashmir by around June 25/26 with an error margin of three days,” says Palawat.
The normal arrival date in the region has been revised up to June 27.