Monsoon arrives in Delhi, Mumbai on same day after 62 years

Normally, the rain-bearing system reaches Kerala by June 1, Mumbai by June 11, and the national capital by June 27.

After six decades, monsoon rains reached Delhi and Mumbai on the same day with the India Meteorological Department announcing the monsoon’s rapid advancement on Sunday.

“The southwest monsoon has advanced over Mumbai and Delhi on June 25th. The last time such a thing happened was on June 21, 1961,” said DS Pai, a senior IMD scientist, observing that 62 years ago the monsoon covered the rest of the country on the same day.

IMD director general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said conditions were favourable for the advancement of monsoon in the remaining parts of the country in the next three to five days during which the western coast is expected to receive heavy showers because of a low-pressure system developed in the Bay of Bengal.

The Met office termed the monsoon activity over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi as ‘vigorous’. According to the IMD, monsoon activity is considered ‘vigorous’ if the recorded rainfall is more than four times the normal or it is fairly widespread.

“Generally there is a gap of eight to ten days for monsoon to reach Mumbai and Delhi. What happened this year is a rare event,” Mohapatra told DH.

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The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi’s primary weather station, logged more than 48 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Sunday. In Mumbai, the Colaba Observatory, representative of the city, recorded 86 mm rainfall in the same period while the Santacruz weather station, representative of the suburbs, registered 176 mm.

Monsoon covered the entire Madhya Pradesh on a single day after entering the central state a day before with the IMD issuing an orange alert for the next 24 hours. Himachal Pradesh was battered by heavy precipitation with Dharamshala recording 90 mm rainfall.

“Models suggest an active monsoon to continue for the next 4-5 days but a slight weakening of the monsoon subsequently. The west coast will get heavy rains in the next 4-5 days,” said M Rajeevan, former secretary, the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Notwithstanding the monsoon’s progress after the withdrawal of tropical cyclone Biparjoy, large tracts of the country experience a cumulative deficiency in monsoon when calculated from June 1.

The cumulative deficiency is the highest in Chhattisgarh (94%), east Madhya Pradesh (94%), Vidarbha (91%) and Marathwada (90%). As many as 18 meteorological subdivisions experience large deficiency while another six experience moderate shortfall.

The weathermen keep their fingers crossed on July rainfall, which is crucial for farming. The weather bureau earlier declared 2023 as an El Nino year, generally associated with lower rainfall.

In May, the IMD predicted a normal monsoon for the entire country notwithstanding “more than 90% probability” of El Nino – a global weather disruptor - developing during the season.