Monsoon withdrawal delayed for 7th year

After steering the country away from a drought, the late rally of south-west monsoon is likely to continue for at least another week, thus delaying its withdrawal.

“The southwest monsoon will continue to bring rains for a little more time, for a maximum of one week. Withdrawal of monsoon is delayed,” Swati Basu, officiating director general, India Meteorological Dept said.

She said monsoon was still active in the northwest region, which spans across J&K, Punjab, Haryana, HP, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and UP. She said this would be the last phase of seasonal rains, as monsoon would begin withdrawing from West Rajasthan sometime next week.

This will be the seventh year when the withdrawal of monsoon, which normally begins in the first week of September, has been delayed to the third week of the month.