New Delhi, Jun 27 (IANS): With the Southwest Monsoon proceeding slower than normal, it has missed its date with the national capital on Monday even as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said it will declare the monsoon arrival over Delhi on Tuesday.
The normal date of arrival of monsoon over Delhi is June 27, shifted from June 29 two years ago based on correction provided by long term data.
As on Monday, the IMD said the northern limit of monsoon passes through Deesa, Ratlam, Shivpuri, Rewa, and Churk, pushing only a little ahead after a hiatus of four days.
"Northwest India gets monsoon rains due to strong easterlies and this time, we had weak easterlies. These easterlies become stronger only when the Bay of Bengal branch of monsoon is active," said senior scientist K.S. Hosalikar at IMD's Climate Research & Services (CR&S), Pune.
This is not the first time that the monsoon has missed its date with Delhi. Last year, the monsoon reached Delhi on July 10, making it the most delayed in 19 years. In 2020, it was two days before time, on June 25. The saving grace for IMD has been that it has made no predictions for the monsoon arrival over Delhi.
"There is no consensus in the multiple models that we use for forecasting. Therefore, we had not announced any date as there was uncertainty. We have decided to wait for one more day and will declare the date only tomorrow (Tuesday)," said R.K. Jenamani, a senior scientist with the IMD, Delhi.
For the last four days, the monsoon system had not moved as expected. However, the IMD bulletin on Monday said: "Conditions are favourable for further advance of monsoon into remaining parts of Arabian Sea and Gujarat, some parts of Rajasthan, remaining parts of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, some parts of Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir during next 3-4 days."
The most delayed monsoon arrival over Delhi - that crossed over to July - include July 19 in 2002 and July 9 in 2006 but it was in 1987 that Delhi had witnessed the most late monsoon arrival on July 26.