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The Southwest Monsoon (SWM) season is well on its way for an early onset throughout India, with the second half of June experiencing more intense rainfall than the first half leading to floods and flood-like situations in some western and eastern states.
During the first week of monsoon rainfall at the end of May and early June, many states in Northeast India had also suffered from floods or flood-like situations.
On June 22, monsoon winds covered many regions in northwest India such as Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Kashmir, most parts of Jammu and some parts of Punjab, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The normal dates of monsoon onset for these regions are between June 25 and June 30.
IMD stated on June 23 that the monsoon may move into Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, apart from more areas in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the following two days. On June 24, the weather agency said the monsoon had further advanced into Haryana and Chandigarh and some parts of other northwestern states.
The only remaining region for the monsoon to cover is Delhi. There was some rain in many parts of the city in the afternoon of June 24, indicating that the monsoon is close by. IMD predicted that the city may receive monsoon rainfall in the following 36 hours, along with many regions of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The normal date for the monsoon to cover the entire country is July 8.
The onset of the monsoon over Kerala was also more than a week in advance on May 24, against the normal date of June 1. After its rapid progress over Northeastern, southern states and up to some parts of central India, both the branches of the monsoon system stalled for a long time.
The Arabian Sea branch of the monsoon stopped its progress on May 26 over Maharashtra and started moving on June 15, after three weeks. The Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon stalled after covering some areas in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and the entire Northeastern region on May 29 and remained in that state until June 16, when it started progressing towards the west and north.
On June 1, the normal date for the onset of the monsoon season over Kerala, there was 86 per cent excess rainfall throughout the country, according to data from the IMD. In the southern, Northeastern and central parts of the country the rainfall was from the monsoon, while the rains in northwestern and eastern states were due to pre-monsoon thunderstorms. After the revival of the SWM in mid-June, there has been considerable increase in rainfall in all regions leading to floods in some states.
Country-wide rainfall remained normal till June 5 and started decreasing after that. From June 5 to June 14, the rains throughout India were below normal. On June 15, the rains throughout India jumped back to normal levels and have consistently been above normal since then. The total rainfall over the country by June 24 is 124.5 mm which is four per cent more than the normal of 119.9 mm for the period of June 1 and June 24.
For south India, the rainfall was below normal between June 1 and June 8. Between June 9 and June 17, rains over the region were above normal on most of the days. The rainfall decreased in intensity again after June 17 but not as much as the first week of June. As of June 24, the rainfall is 7.2 per cent below the normal for the region, according to data from the IMD. Some parts of Karnataka and Kerala have experienced floods or flood-like situations.
In the eastern and Northeastern parts of the country, June started off with really good rainfall, continuing from the rains in the last week of May. The cumulative rainfall until the first week of June led to flood-like situations and landslides in all the states of Northeast India killing at least 50 people and damaging crops across almost 15,000 hectares (ha), according to a flood situation report by non-profit Sphere India.
The worst affected state was Assam with 17 deaths and 14,739 ha of cultivated land affected, as of June 4. There were 633,000 people affected by the flooding in Assam’s 21 districts. There were a record number of 598 landslides in Mizoram in 11 villages across four districts.
After a decrease in rains between June 6 and June 16, they picked up again on June 17 in the region and have been mostly above normal till June 24. The cumulative rainfall deficit for the region stands at 11.5 per cent, despite the floods.
In central India the rainfall was consistently below normal between June 1 and June 14 and revived on June 15 as the monsoon system became active again. Many states in the region such as Gujarat are suffering from floods.
On June 19, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), citing the National Disaster Management Authority stated that 15 people had lost their lives due to floods in Gujarat. The ECHO update highlighted floods triggered by heavy rainfall in Rajasthan in northwest India and West Bengal in eastern India as well. By June 24, states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh also experienced some flood-like situations.