India monsoon revives after two-week stall, heads into central belt

MUMBAI: A monsoon in India has been revived after its advance over western India stalled for two weeks, with rains expected to move into the country’s central regions this week, giving a boost to summer crop sowing and bringing relief from a heatwave, two senior weather officials said on Monday.

The June-to-September monsoon rains - critical for India’s nearly $4 trillion economy, Asia’s third-largest - usually begin to lash Kerala state around June 1 before covering the entire country by mid-July.

The monsoon delivers about 70% of the country’s annual rains and replenishes crucial water sources in an economy where nearly half of farmland lacks irrigation and about half the population earns its livelihood from agriculture.

“The monsoon is now getting momentum,” said a senior official with the India Meteorological Department (IMD). “It has now covered additional parts of Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh, as well as the remaining areas of Karnataka.”

Monsoon rains reached southern Maharashtra state on June 8, but their advance across the state stalled for nearly two weeks as western disturbances impeded the monsoon’s progress, according to an IMD chart that tracked its movement.

India monsoon slows; below-average rain seen over next two weeks

Western disturbances are weather systems from the Mediterranean Sea that bring rain and snow to north India and can occasionally disrupt monsoon progress.

Monsoon rains are likely to cover India’s financial capital, Mumbai, over the next two days, the official said.

Mumbai has cut water supplies to construction sites and reduced industrial usage by 20% as reservoir levels decline.

Conditions are now becoming favourable for the advancement of the monsoon into central parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Odisha this week, another weather department official said.

“From next week, monsoon rains are likely to pick up strongly over the west coast, Karnataka and Telangana,” the official said.

In the first 21 days of June, India received rainfall that was 42.2% below average, and rainfall this week is also expected to remain below normal, the officials said.

The weather department last month forecast that India is likely to receive 90% of the long-period-average (LPA) rainfall during the four-month monsoon season, while rainfall in June is expected to be 92% of the LPA due to the emergence of El Nino.