Monsoon covers India six days earlier

The southwest monsoon has covered the entire country on July 2, six days ahead of schedule, potentially helping farmers speed up sowing activities.

The monsoon has advanced further into the remaining parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab to cover the entire country, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a bulletin. The normal date for the monsoon’s countrywide coverage is July 8.

Currently, the monsoon trough at mean sea level passes through Firozpur (Punjab), Rohtak (Haryana), Hardoi and Ballia (Uttar Pradesh), Balurghat (West Bengal), Kailashahar (Tripura) and eastwards to Manipur.

Cyclonic circulation

Under the influence of a cyclonic circulation that currently lies over south-east Pakistan and that of the monsoon trough, fairly widespread to widespread light to moderate rainfall accompanied with thunderstorm, lightning is very likely over northwest and central India during the next five days, the IMD said.

Further, isolated heavy rainfall has been predicted over Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit, Baltistan, and Muzaffarabad during July 4–6; and over Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and east Rajasthan during July 2-6. The weather bureau also said heavy rainfall may be observed at isolated places over west Rajasthan on July 3, over Madhya Pradesh during July 2–4, and over Chhattisgarh during July 2-3.

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Isolated very heavy rainfall is seen over Uttarakhand during July 2-6, Punjab on July 3, Haryana July 2-3, west Uttar Pradesh on July 2 and 6, and both in east Uttar Pradesh and coastal Karnataka during July 5-6. There could also be widespread light to moderate rainfall accompanied with thunderstorm, lightning with heavy to very heavy rainfall over northeast India, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.

Kharif sowing has gathered momentum over the past fortnight with farmers preferring pulses such as arhar (pigeon pea/tur), urad (black matpe) and maize, even as soyabean seems to be in favour too. Overall, kharif acreage is up 32 per cent at 240.72 lakh hectares (lh) until June 28, compared with 181.60 lh in the corresponding period a year ago, data from Ministry of Agriculture showed.

The rain across the country in last few days have helped narrow the deficit as the rainfall until July 2 from the start of the season stands at 95 pert cent of its long period average of 180.8 mm whereas it was 89 per cent of LPA until June 30. The countrywide rainfall on June 30 had 55 per cent surplus, 45 per cent more each on July 1 and July 2, IMD data show.