Monsoon arrives 17 days ahead of schedule

Jammu: The South West Monsoon has arrived in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, about a fortnight before its normal schedule on Sunday morning.
The normal onset date of monsoon in J&K and Ladakh is June 30 or July 1, however Director Jammu and Kashmir Meteorological Department Sonam Lotus said the Monsoon this year has arrived 17-18 days ahead of schedule as conditions were favourable for an early arrival.
As per Indian Metrological Department(IMD) the Southwest Monsoon has further advanced over Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad and some parts of north Haryana, Chandigarh and north Punjab. Conditions are favourable for its further advance “into most parts of Madhya Pradesh, remaining parts of east Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, some more parts of west Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab over the next 48 hours”, it added.
Jammu region received an early morning rain on Sunday. Director Met Department has attributed the early morning spell as-the first rainfall of the Monsoon season in J&K.
“The morning rainfall has announced its arrival in J&K”, he said. Last year, the monsoon had arrived in UT of J&K on June 29, few days before the normal onset date.
Sonam Lotus said, “The J&K UT will receive normal rainfall this season and it will stay here till mid September”.
Meanwhile, the early morning rainfall has brought Jammu the minimum temperature by five notches below the season's average to settle at 20.6 degrees Celsius. On Thursday, Jammu city recorded the season's highest night temperature of 30.8 degrees Celsius, while the hottest day of the season was recorded a day earlier at 42.7 degrees Celsius.
The rains started in the city around 1.50 am and continued for six hours, bringing much needed change in the weather conditions. Jammu recorded 37.6 mm of rainfall during the past 24 hours till 0830 am (Sunday), Meteorological (MeT) department officials said. They predicted fairly widespread light to moderate rain or thundershowers till Tuesday.
Katra, the base camp for the pilgrims visiting Vaishno Devi Shrine in Reasi district, received a maximum rainfall of 46 mm and recorded a minimum temperature of 18.7 degrees Celsius, the officials said. They said 32.8 mm rainfall was witnessed in Banihal town along Jammu-Srinagar national highway from 6 am to 7 am. The night temperature in the town dropped to 14.4 degrees Celsius.
Keeping in mind about the arrival of monsoon, the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has started cleaning the drains (nahallas) of city to reduce waterlogging problems.
The monsoon arrived in the Kerala coast on June 3 – the predicted date of onset was June 1 – but reached Mumbai on May 8, two days before its expected date of arrival.
Updated On 6/14/2021 10:39:39 AM