'Enhanced' southwest monsoon to bring good rain, says IMD

In its last forecast, Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology had predicted normal to above-normal rain in the remaining part of the monsoon season

"Enhanced activity" of the southwest monsoon will bring good rain across several parts of the country for the next three-four days, giving a breather to regions reeling under severe water deficiency, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.

That, however, might not be enough to make good the seasonal rainfall deficit, which stood at 14 per cent on Monday, with 36 per cent of the regions receiving deficient rain. A few days ago, the deficit was 16 per cent.

"There is circulation on both the sides of the country. On the west, there is a low-pressure area over north Gujarat and Rajasthan. There is another low-pressure area in Jharkhand and the adjoining areas of Gangetic West Bengal and Bihar. This will bring good rainfall till September 23," said IMD Director-General Laxman Singh Rathore.

In its last forecast, the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology had predicted normal to above-normal rain in the remaining part of this monsoon season. The "line of withdrawal (of the monsoon)" now passed through Amritsar, Hissar, Ajmer and Barmer, IMD said.

Rathore said good rainfall would continue until September 23, after which the monsoon would start withdrawing rapidly. "Heavy rainfall will occur at isolated places over sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Bihar, isolated places in Assam and Meghalaya, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, east and west Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Haryana, Chandigarh and east and west Rajasthan on September 22," IMD said.

Skymet, the private weather forecasting agency, said, "The situation seems to be improving now. The low-pressure area over north Gujarat will move in a north-easterly direction towards the plains of north India."

The effects of this system will be complemented by the presence of western disturbances over north Pakistan."

It added a combination of these two systems would bring fairly widespread rain over north India. The entire region, including west Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and west Uttar Pradesh, will receive some rain till September 23.

This, it said, could be the last spell of monsoon rain for this region.

Good rain is much needed across many parts of the country, especially east and west Uttar Pradesh, where the deficiency is 46 and 43 per cent, respectively. While the deficiency in Punjab is 37 per cent, in Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, it is 36 per cent. In Marathwada, the deficiency is 35 per cent, central Maharashtra 28 per cent, Konkan and Goa 30 per cent and north interior Karnataka 23 per cent.