Southwest monsoon set to withdraw from all parts of country by Saturday

NEW DELHI: The southwest monsoon is set to withdraw from all parts of the country by Saturday, as conditions become favourable for the onset of monsoonal showers over peninsular India, the weather office said. The northeast monsoon brings about 30% of south peninsula’s annual rainfall in the October to December season. Tamil Nadu, in particular, receives 48% of its yearly rainfall during the season.

“Conditions are becoming favourable for withdrawal of southwest monsoon from entire country around October 20. Also, conditions are likely to become favourable for onset of northeast monsoon thereafter,” the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a forecast on Thursday.

The southwest monsoon normally begins to withdraw September 1 onwards. India receives about 70% of its annual rainfall during the June to September season and the country recorded 9% below normal rains this year.


This year, the withdrawal process started almost a month behind schedule and a late withdrawal added little to the overall rainfall picture, with September alone recording about 22% deficit. The withdrawal of the southwest monsoon was also thwarted by simultaneous cyclones in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, a senior IMD official said.

“We were still getting rainfall in some areas because of the cyclones, so we could not declare withdrawal of monsoon. But now we are expecting it to completely withdraw by October 20,” said K Sathi Devi, head of national weather forecasting centre at IMD.

IMD called the simultaneous formation of two very severe cyclonic storms—Titli and Luban—a “rarest of rare occurrence”.

Meanwhile, dry weather is likely to prevail over most parts of the country, apart from the south peninsula, where ongoing heavy rainfall activity is likely to continue till the end of this week, according to the weather office. Some parts of NE India are also expected to receive scanty rainfall over the next few days.