Even as the monsoon has made speedy progress to most parts of the country, except Northwest, overall rainfall has been 18 per cent below normal while 30 per cent of the country has recorded deficient rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). In meteorological parlance, the country is divided into 36 sub-divisions and of these 17 have received normal rainfall, 11 have received deficient rainfall, six recorded excess rain while two sub-divisions, in Gujarat, have recorded scanty rainfall. Sub-divisions in Central India; Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Vidarbha, Odisha, East Madhya Pradesh, have recorded rainfall 37 per cent below normal.

IMD officials, though, said that the rainfall is likely to pick up as June draws to a close and monsoon will advance into remaining parts of the country in Northwest by Tuesday. As on Friday, the northern limit of monsoon pass through Veraval, Surat, Ratlam, Jhansi, Lucknow, Dehradun, Una and Jammu. "The conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of north Arabian sea and Gujarat state, remaining parts of West Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and most parts of Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab and East Rajasthan during next 3-4 days," IMD said.

Graphic: Dnyaneshwar Jadhav

Met officials said that the weather systems that formed over the Bay of Bengal moved westwards and gave more rainfall to central and western Maharashtra, resulting in below normal rainfall in Central India. "The normal rainfall, in regions that have recorded deficient rains, is high, but this year rains have not picked up yet. Regions on the west coast have seen more convective activity, and have thus recorded more rainfall that Central and eastern regions," said Sunitha Devi, director, weather section, IMD, Pune. She added, "Rainfall is likely to pick up as June ends. As per our forecast, rainfall will be 107 per cent of long period average, that will make up for the deficient June rainfall."