Monsoon likely to gain momentum, advance further

After a making a slow progress, the southwest monsoon is expected to gain momentum and advance further into several parts of drought-hit Maharashtra and central India.

"The southwest monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal, more parts of north interior Karnataka, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Jharkhand and Bihar," the India Meteorological Department said.

Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, M Rajeevan, said the last week of June is expected to witness some good rainfall.

The IMD said the conditions are favourable for the monsoon to advance into entire Konkan and Goa, drought-hit central Maharashtra, Marathwada, remaining parts of north interior Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

The weatherman has forecast an "above normal" monsoon this year. However, its onset over Kerala, which marks the commencement of the rainy season in the country, was on June 8, seven days later than predicted.

Also, it made a slow progress due to lack of a favourable system that could have given it a boost to move forward. The slow pace had increased the rain deficiency to 25 per cent.

It is expected to make its way to Delhi in the first week of July. Normally, it reaches the national capital by July 1.