The monsoon advanced to most parts of Bihar and some more parts of East Uttar Pradesh on Thursday even as its northern limit took a pause briefly across Barmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Gwalior, Khajuraho, Sonbhadra and Ballia after three consecutive days of forward march, bringing rainfall deficit for country as a whole from a high of -34 per cent to -11 per cent as on Wednesday.
Nil deficit in South
It mirrored cuts in individual rain deficits in four homogenous regions with South Peninsula wiping out entire deficit, followed closely by North-West India at -3 per cent, though with some help from pre-monsoon rainfall. The deficit in Central India is -5 per cent, while it held up at a higher -28 per cent on East and North-East India which has traditionally high rainfall normals.
The 24 hours ending on Thursday morning saw extremely heavy rain lash Assam and Meghalaya and plains of West Bengal; eastern parts of Gujarat, and Konkan and Goa. Heavy to very heavy rain occurred elsewhere over Konkan and Goa; Assam and Meghalaya; North-East India; Odisha, Bihar, West Uttar Pradesh, east Gujarat; Madhya Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Productive systems
India Meteorological Department (IMD) said rainfall during this period was was heavy over Andaman and Nicobar Islands; East Rajasthan; West Madhya Pradesh; Saurashtra and Kutch; Tamil Nadu; Puducherry and Karaikal; and Kerala and Mahe. A well-marked low-pressure area over West Bengal and adjoining north-east Jharkhand led the proceedings over East and North-East India while a remnant circulation from a previous ‘low’ over south-west Rajasthan did the honours in west India.
Slow movement of ‘low’
Anticipated slow movement of well-marked ‘low’ over West Bengal and north-east Jharkhand will mean continued heavy rainfall over East and North-East India as well as adjoining parts of North-West India. Projected extremely heavy rainfall over Jharkhand on THursday will be followed by isolated heavy rainfall hills West Bengal and Sikkim for three days from Sunday; four days over plains of West Bengal; five days over Bihar; four days over Jharkhand and Odisha; and seven days over Madhya Pradesh.
North-West India rain
Over North-West India, very heavy rainfall was expected over Thursday, and isolated heavy elsewhere over Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and East Rajasthan for seven days; Jammu Kashmir-Ladakh on Sunday and Wednesday; Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh for five days; East Rajasthan and elsewhere over Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh for two days.
Systems on standby
Systems on stand-by also included a trough from north-west Uttar Pradesh to east Gujarat across a circulation over north-east Rajasthan; an east-west trough from south Punjab to south Assam across north-east Rajasthan, north Madhya Pradesh and the circulation over Jharkhand and West Bengal; and an offshore trough extending from north Konkan coast to north Kerala coast.
Further advance
Conditions are favourable for further advance of monsoon to some more parts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh; remaining parts of Madhya Pradesh; some parts of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh during next 2-3 days. Conditions are also becoming favorable for its further advance over some parts of Punjab and Haryana during subsequent 2-3 days.