Nashik
The monsoon has now withdrawn from Nashik, Pune and Mumbai, thus exiting Maharashtra. With this, most parts of the country will get to enjoy a rain-free Diwali this year.
The southwest monsoon finally exited the entire country on Sunday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The normal date for its complete retreat is October 15, but in recent years the monsoon has overstayed till the third week of October. In its final leg, the monsoon has now withdrawn from Nashik, Pune and Mumbai, thus exiting Maharashtra. With this, most parts of the country will get to enjoy a rain-free Diwali this year.
Normally, by the second week of October, the southwest monsoon withdraws from the entire northwest, north, and many parts of the Indo-Gangetic plains spanning up to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and most of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. But this year, rainfall activity continued and was associated with two cyclonic circulations each over east Rajasthan and south Gujarat-north Maharashtra. The persistent inflow of moisture-laden winds from both the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea fuelled the rainfall over parts of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Odisha, thus delaying the monsoon retreat.
After recording 925 mm or 106 per cent rainfall during June to September, rainfall over the country continued till mid-October. The country’s post-monsoon rainfall (October 1-22) was 104 mm, which was quantitatively 70 per cent above normal.
Meanwhile, in the five-day weather forecast issued by the IMD on Sunday for the period up to October 27, completely dry weather has been predicted for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, and Ratnagiri, along with all other districts of Maharashtra. Between June and September this year, total rainfall recorded by the IMD’s Colaba observatory was 2093.8mm. Santacruz observatory recorded 2658.3mm rainfall in the period.
