Monsoon to hit Kerala on May 30, will reach Mumbai by June 7, Delhi by June 30

NEW DELHI: India’s southern tip is expected to receive monsoon rainfall on May 30 as it usually does, Indian India Meteorology Department has said, a forecast that bodes well for timely sowing of crops and promises relief to city dwellers from searing heat.

Pre-monsoon showers, which have been lashing southern and north-eastern parts of the country over the past few weeks, are expected to gather momentum in the coming days, it added. Private forecasting company Skymet Weather Services has earlier said that it expects monsoon to hit Andaman by May 20-22 and Kerala coast by May 27-29 while there could be a delay of three-days for monsoon to reach Mumbai.

The agriculture ministry has been working closely with various agriculture universities and research institutes to minimise the impact of the likely deficiency in rainfall. Delayed and weak rains can hit farm output and trigger food inflation.
“The southwest monsoon is likely to set over Kerala on May 30th with a model error of plusminus four days,” said the official statement released by the IMD on Thursday. As per Laxman Singh Rathore, director general of meteorology, IMD will release the next forecast in the first week of June.”It is early for us to say on the progress of the monsoon and we will try to give the forecast at the earliest by first week of June,” he said. IMD expects monsoon rainfall to be 93% of average.

The Indian weather office treats June 1 as the normal date for the monsoon arrival over the southern coast. In the normal course the monsoon reaches Mumbai by June 7, central India by June 15 and Delhi by June 30. The four-month-long monsoon season covers the entire country by July 15. In 2014, monsoon rains arrived on the Kerala coast by June 6.