Jaipur: After a delay of over fortnight, the monsoon on Thursday entered Rajasthan`s Bikaner division giving respite to people from the scorching heatwave conditions, the MeT office said.
Rains occurred in parts of Churu, Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Nagaur since early morning due to the southwest monsoon, state MeT director B N Vishnoi said here.
It was a rare direction of entry for the monsoon this time as it normally comes from the northeast of Kota and Udaipur districts. But this year, it struck the northern region of the state in Bikaner, he said.
Vishnoi said the monsoon rains used to start in the second and third week of June.
Last year, the monsoon had reached Rajasthan on June 13, he said.
Meanwhile, pre-monsoon rains in the wee hours today brought relief for Jaipur residents also. The city recorded 8 mm of rainfall since morning, a MeT report said.
Dantaramgarh recorded the maximum rainfall of 5 cm followed by Bundi, Neemkathana, Machlisar, Jhunjhunu, Deedwana 3 cm each. Rainfall was recorded in the range of 1 to 2.9 cm in many other places in the state.
The monsoon rains have brought joy for the farmers also as they will now gear up to sow the kharif crop, an agriculture department official said.
