New Delhi, June 26 (IANS): The southwest monsoon has covered the entire country, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its bulletin released on Friday.

The IMD had predicted deficit rain during the monsoon this year and despite making a late entry - hitting the Kerala coast on June 5, a delay of four days - the monsoon has made rapid strides to cover the entire country ahead of the scheduled date of July 15.

"The southwest monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of west Rajasthan. Thus it has covered the entire country today, June 26. Southwest monsoon has been vigorous over Uttarakhand and active over Uttar Pradesh, south-interior Karnataka and Kerala," it said in a statement.

"Thunderstorms have been observed at isolated places over Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, east Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Sikkim, Assam and Meghalaya, coastal Karnataka and Kerala today," it added.

In its rain forecast for the next couple of days, the IMD said thundershowers would occur at most places along the west coast as well as over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, east and northeast India and at a few places over peninsular India.

Rain would also occur at isolated places over rest of the country.

However, private weather forecasting company Skymet said that apart from some spells of patchy rain, the monsoon will slow down in the next few days.

"The monsoon will pick up all over the country only after July 7," Skymet official Mahesh Palawat told IANS.