Monsoon Tracker: After passing through Maharashtra, Mumbai is ready for this weekend's rains

After moving into Maharashtra on Thursday, the southwest monsoon is still moving through the state and has reached the center Arabian Sea, portions of Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, coastal Andhra Pradesh, the central Bay of Bengal, and the northwest Bay of Bengal.

The monsoon's northern boundary persisted, traversing through Ratnagiri, Islampur in West Bengal, Medak in Telangana, Bhadrachalam, Vizinagaram in Andhra Pradesh, and Solapur in Maharashtra.

In the next two to three days, Mumbai is expected to experience the arrival of the monsoon; last year, this happened on June 25. Mumbai is under a yellow alert due to the possibility of thunderstorms and light rain.

On May 30, two days before its typical June 1 start date, the southwest monsoon arrived over Kerala. It also started early in certain regions of Northeastern India at the same time.

Over 70% of the nation's rainfall falls during the four-month major monsoon season, which runs from June to September. This time frame is crucial for rain-fed kharif crops across the nation as well as for filling reservoirs and dams.

The IMD has predicted "above" normal rainfall for the 2024 monsoon season. Based on data from 1971 to 2020, this means that the rainfall will be 106% of the long-period average (LPA), or 880.6 mm.

Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, northern Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Sikkim, and Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttarakhand are all expected to get normal or above-average rainfall.

It is probable that Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, and southern West Bengal may get rainfall that is below average. The IMD rainfall data indicated that states in eastern India would face a deficit in rainfall for the sixth season in a row if this came to pass.