Monsoon hits North Bengal; Sikkim, overall rainfall deficiency reaches 43%

Monsoon arrived at some parts of North Bengal and Sikkim on Sunday. The Northern limit of monsoon is curently passing through North East Bay of Bengal then Goalpara (Assam), Alipurduar (North Bengal) and Gangtok (Sikkim).

The Indian Meterolgical Department (IMD) said on Sunday that monsoon is expected to advance further up north as Cyclone Vayu loses intensity. It is to be noted that by now, monsoon should have reached some parts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, but the onset of monsoon has got delayed and it is yet to hit Maharashtra.

According to IMD, the western coast of the country has been receiving rainfall for the last few days due to Cyclone Vayu and rainfall in coastal Karnataka and Kerala has been due to monsoon. It is expected that Cyclone Vayu would cross the Gujarat coast on Monday evening and after its movement as depression, the monsoon winds would start moving move up towards the Arabian Sea.

Monsoon arrived in Kerala on June 8, after a delay of around a week after its usual onset date. "The progress of monsoon was halted due to Cyclone Vayu. As its intensity decreases, we expect monsoon to progress in the next 2-3 days," said Devendra Pradhan, additional director general, IMD.

The IMD said in its monsoon bulletin, that conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of the southwest monsoon to more parts of central Arabian Sea, Karnataka and remaining parts of Tamil Nadu, PTI reported. The IMD added that monsoon is expected to reach more parts of central, north and south Bay, northeast India, north Bengal and Sikkim in 1-2 days.

It is to be noted that central division of IMD, which covers Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa, has recorded a rainfall deficiency of as much 59% so far, while the deficiency in east and northeast India has been recorded at 47 per cent. The overall rainfall deficiency has reached 43% so far.