The month of July is generally welcomed by Monsoon air sweeping across the country. Not very surprisingly, this year a large part of the country is still to come under the purview of Southwest Monsoon.
The Northern Limit of Monsoon (NLM) continues to pass through Veraval, Surat, Nashik, Wasim, Damoh and Sultanpur. Entire North India including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and western parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are still left out.
Monsoon rain behaved very uncannily with good rain observed only over Northeast India and West Bengal leaving behind a whopping national cumulative deficit of 43%. Northwest and Central India have contributed to maximum deficit of 55% and 61%, respectively.
With good rain, the weather in East and Northeast India is quite cool and comfortable while temperatures are still touching 40⁰C in Agra (41⁰C), Satna (40⁰C), Gwalior (41⁰C), Kota (41.6⁰C),
The west coast of peninsular India is generally the wettest part of the country, where it rains cats and dogs in the month of June. However, rain has been subdued here and it’s going to continue on a milder note for the next 10 days. But with rain deficit mounting to 31% in Kerala and 43% in coastal parts of Karnataka, some relief is foreseen as these regions should receive some good showers in the coming days.
According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, the rain deficiency can be seen mounting as we travel from South to North India and then to Gujarat and Rajasthan. Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar may continue to get rain during 24 hours. Going by the present scenario, covering the cumulative average rain of 29 cm for the month of July seems to be a daunting task, believes AVM (Retd) G.P Sharma.
