The four-month journey of monsoon is now coming to an end. Monsoon 2023 is unique in many ways. Cyclonic storm Biparjoy formed in the Arabian Sea in the month of June and made landfall over Gujarat coast near Naliya on June 21st. Monsoon rains were intense over Gujarat and Rajasthan in the month of June itself. June ended with some deficiency.
However, monsoon picked up pace in the month of July and July performed better than June. Rain was surplus in the month of July. During August 2023, the country received 162.7 mm of rainfall, which is 36% less than its Long Period Average (LPA) of 254.9 mm based on data from 1971-2020.
Rainfall over all of India was the lowest (162.7 mm) since 1901 against the previous record of 191.2 mm in 2005. We are now in the month of September; monsoon has become active once again. Two back-to-back low-pressure areas have developed over the Bay of Bengal, which have given intense rainfall across the east, Central, and western parts of the country.
The withdrawal date of monsoon from western parts of Rajasthan is September 17. This year the withdrawal of monsoon has been delayed. We expect the monsoon to start withdrawing from western Rajasthan around September 26. Conditions are becoming favourable as an anti-cyclone is likely to develop over Central Pakistan and adjoining parts of Rajasthan soon.
Dry westerly and North Westerly winds will blow across west and northwest India leading to a significant decrease in humidity as well as cloud cover. As of September 22nd, monsoon is still deficient by 6%. There may be widespread rainfall over east and Central India during the next to 3 days. Rain deficiency will reduce further.
