Depression over Bay of Bengal delays withdrawal of monsoon, says IMD

The southwest monsoon is unlikely to withdraw from the rest of the country until next week, further extending the rainfall season, the India Meteorological Department said on Sunday.

The ongoing depression over the Bay of Bengal --- a cyclonic circulation --- is likely to intensify into a deep depression during the next 24 hours and cross north Andhra Pradesh coast between Narsapur and Vishakhapatnam during the night of October 12.

Besides Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the system will also bring rains over Telangana, north interior Karnataka, central Maharashtra and Vidarbha, and south Odisha on October 13.

There are very little chances of further withdrawal of the southwest monsoon until next week due to the ongoing depression, IMD director general Mrutunjay Mohapatra said.

The first week of October also saw formation of one low pressure area.

The official rainfall season in the country is from June 1 to September 30. This season, the country received above normal rainfall for the second consecutive year.

The normal withdrawal date of monsoon from west Rajasthan is September 17. However, this year the monsoon retreated from parts of west Rajasthan and Punjab on September 28, 11 days after its normal withdrawal date.

The monsoon usually withdraws from large parts of Karnataka and Telangana and parts of Andhra Pradesh by October 15. It also marks the commencement of northeast monsoon which brings rains over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

By the first week of October, the monsoon had withdrawn from several parts of north India, parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The withdrawal line of the southwest monsoon continues to pass through Faizabad, Fatehpur, Nowgong, Rajgarh, Ratlam, Vallabh Vidyanagar and Porbandar, the IMD's bulletin said on Sunday.

The withdrawal of monsoon from the country was delayed even last year.

There has been a trend that the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon is getting delayed. Also, after the monsoon hits Kerala, it has been observed that its progress over north India has slowed, M Rajeevan, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences said.

From this year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has revised the onset date of monsoon over some parts of the country and also the withdrawal date from west Rajasthan.