Thunder and rain bring relief in several parts of Northern India; Kerala still awaits Monsoon

On Wednesday, the weather office said that the monsoon was likely to get delayed further and hit the Kerala coast only on June 8.

Childrren cool off in a local water pool in New Delhi/ AFP

New Delhi: Even though rains lashed the Himachal region on Thursday, most of the country is still battling intense heatwave with temperature rising as high as 45 degrees. The rains have brought some relief in Himachal as the maximum temperature there has dropped by 3-7 degrees. The hot winds however continue to blow across the national capital and neighboring states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and even Bihar. Monsoon to reach Kerala by June 8 The India Meteorological Department Wednesday said the onset of monsoon is likely to be delayed by a week and it is now expected to arrive only by June 8. The normal onset date for monsoon over Kerala is June 1 which also marks the official commencement of the four-month-long rainfall season. "It is very likely to shift northwards gradually leading to favourable conditions for onset of Southwest Monsoon over Kerala around June 8. Conditions are likely to become favourable for advance of southwest monsoon into some parts of northeastern states during next 3-4 days," the IMD said in its monsoon bulletin. On Wednesday, the weather office said that the monsoon was likely to get delayed further and hit the Kerala coast only on June 8. "Normally, the monsoon reaches Delhi by June 29. Since there's a delay in its onset in the southern peninsula, the wind system is likely to take two-three days longer to reach northwest India," IMD's regional weather forecasting chief Kuldeep Srivastava said. "The good is news is the factors that aid the progress of the monsoon, including the southwesterly winds and the Somali jet stream, are gradually becoming active," he said. Northwest India is likely to witness normal rainfall during the monsoon season, Srivastava said. However, Mahesh Palawat, senior vice president and meteorologist at Skymet Weather, said, "It's difficult to say when will it reach Delhi exactly, but it's expected to get delayed by at least one week." "After the onset of the monsoon, a low-pressure area is expected to develop over the Arabian Sea and it may intensify into a depression gradually. Whenever any such intense weather system develops over the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea, the moisture-laden winds start converging around it, affecting the progress of the monsoon. "So, the progress of the monsoon will be sluggish due to the formation of low-pressure area in the Arabian Sea," he added. "The rainfall is expected to remain on the lower side of normal over Delhi. Since, it's a small area; one or two good spells of rains may make up for the deficit. But any surplus rain is ruled out," Palawat said.