Southwest Monsoon finally covers whole country

The Southwest Monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of north Arabian Sea, Saurashtra and Kutch, Gujarat region and west Rajasthan. Thus, it covered the entire country today,’ the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

‘The Monsoon has certainly picked up and is expected to give relief on many counts with primary being ending immediate woes of drinking water,’ IMD Director General Laxman Singh Rathore said. But there are problems ahead because of the delay of monsoon in other parts.

‘In many parts of southern peninsula, the sowing time has passed, so only contingency plan has to be undertaken. Places like Madhya Pradesh, where crops like soybean are sown have now got some relief,’ he said.

This year the Monsoon has been delayed by two days than its normal date of July 15 on which it usually covers west Rajasthan, the Kutch and Saurashtra regions and the North Arabian sea.

However, the weather department maintains that there has been no delay in the Monsoon. ‘We keep a gap of plus or minus one week before reaching on any conclusion,’ Rathore added.

According to G P Sharma of Skymet’s Meteorology Division, a private forecasting agency, usually monsoon reaches the last post 12 days after it hits Delhi, which is July 29. ‘But in this last phase of monsoon covering the entire country, there is a lot of variability. The irregular advancement of Monsoon can be gauged by the fact that in 2005 the Monsoon had covered the entire country by June 30, while in 2006 it was delayed and covered the country by 24 July. This clearly shows how high the variation is.

‘This time too Monsoon has been delayed, covering west Rajasthan by 17 July,’ Sharma said.