High humidity in northern plains to prevail as monsoon shows no signs of withdrawal: IMD

With the monsoon showing no signs of withdrawal, north Indian plains are unlikely to get any respite from high levels of humidity this week, MeT officials said on Sunday.

The country has so far received four per cent more rains than normal, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data shows.

Normally, the withdrawal of monsoon from parts of west Rajasthan begins from September 1. By September 15, the monsoon withdraws from some more parts of Rajasthan, the areas of Kutch in Gujarat and parts of Punjab.

However, monsoon is still active over west Rajasthan this year.

Currently, there is a low pressure area of northwest Madhya Pradesh which is causing good rainfall, said K Sathi Devi, Head of the National Weather Forecasting Centre.

This also attracts moisture from the easterlies. Several parts of the north Indian plains have been recording high levels of humidity, which is not a usual phenomenon in September.

High amount of moisture due to the low pressure area, coupled with temperatures, leads to rise in the humidity.

Mritunjay Mohapatra, Director General of the India Meteorological Department, said the intensity of the low pressure will be ebbing from Monday but the effect in likely to remain for the next five days.

"Thereafter, we can expect the withdrawal process of the monsoon to commence," Mohapatra said.

So far, the country has received four per cent more rainfall than normal. The south peninsula has received 10 per cent more precipitation, while the central India division has recorded 23 per cent more rainfall.

The east and north India divisions and the northwest India division have recorded deficient rainfall at minus 18 and minus 8 per cent respectively.

Of the 36 meteorological sub-divisions of the IMD, more than three-fourths have received normal or excess rainfall.

Sixteen sub-divisions have received normal rainfall, while 11 have recorded excess precipitation. Nine have received deficient rainfall.