After 4-day delay, monsoon finally hits Delhi

NEW DELHI: After a delay of four days, the monsoon today finally hit Delhi and other northern parts of the country which have been experiencing hot weather conditions for several days.

"The monsoon has arrived in several parts of North India and Delhi. The national capital and several parts of North India received widespread rain since yesterday," IMD director B P Yadav said.

"There is sufficient humidity and winds are flowing both from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, which is a typical sign of monsoon's arrival in North India," he said.

The normal date for south-west monsoon's arrival in Delhi is June 29.

IMD Director General L S Rathore, however, said that he would not conclude that the monsoon was delayed.

"We would not want to say that monsoon has delayed. Even if the normal date of monsoon arrival in Delhi is June 29, we have plus or minus 7 days gap," he said.

Rathore said that places like Bikaner in Rajasthan, monsoon has set in early, where the expected date of rainfall is July 15.

However, in places like west Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat where the monsoon was expected to arrive between June 10 and 15, there has been practically no rain. The IMD's data for June showed that parts of Gujarat have received 91 per cent less rainfall.

Similar is the case in Bundelkhand where monsoon has still not arrived and its onset is expected to be around June 16-17.

"Heavy to very rainfall would occur at isolated places over SubHimalayan West Bengal, Sikkim andJharkhand isolated places over Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya and Andaman and Nicobar Islands," the IMD said.