Farmers Alert! Monsoon Likely to Hit Andaman and Nicobar on 16th May, says IMD

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), monsoon is likely to hit Indian shores in the middle of May as a low pressure area has started to form over the southeast Bay of Bengal and adjacent south Andaman Sea on Wednesday (13^th May) morning. As we know that farmers in India completely depend on monsoon rains for agricultural produce, the news could bring cheers to them. Moreover, it is expected that monsoon would be normal this year.

IMD said that “In association with the system (cyclone), conditions would become favorable for advance of southwest monsoon over the southern Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea & Andaman and Nicobar islands around 16 May”.

Monsoon in India

Secretary with the ministry of earth sciences (MoES), Madhavan Rajeevan, said while the cyclone will help in advancement of monsoon, the arrival date for monsoon in Kerala remains unchanged from 1 June. The weather department has revised the dates of onset as well as withdrawal of the monsoon for several parts of India this year. The revision is basically done on the basis of data from 1960 to 2019. Earlier, the monsoon dates were based taking data from 1901 -1940 into consideration.

The beginning of monsoon in Kerala marks the start of long rainfall season in India. But, for states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha & parts of Uttar Pradesh, monsoon could be delayed by three to seven days compared to the existing normal dates.

Monsoon in Delhi

For Delhi, the new onset date for monsoon is 27^th June 2020. Dates for Mumbai as well as Kolkata have also been changed from 10^th June to 11^th June & for Chennai from 1^st to 4^th June. For northwest India, monsoon is expected to arrive a little early on 8^th July, as compared to previous date of 15^th July.