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In its final leg, the monsoon has now withdrawn from Mumbai, Pune and Nashik, thus exiting Maharashtra.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 countryтАЩs post-monsoon rainfall (October 1-22) was 104 mm, which was quantitatively 70 per cent above normal.
Monsoon withdrawal over Maharashtra
After a fortnightтАЩs delay, the southwest monsoon on Sunday withdrew from Maharashtra. Last year, the monsoon withdrawal over the state was completed on October 17. This year, Pune city recorded a total rainfall of 817.4 mm against a normal of 605 mm, quantitatively making it 34 per cent above the June to September monsoon season average. During this period, Maharashtra recorded 1,219.7 mm of rainfall, a surplus of 23 per cent from the seasonal average.
Moreover, the rainfall in October has been among the highest-ever recorded in Pune city and also in many other parts of the state. Two intense 24-hour rainfall spells тАУ measuring 78 mm and 104.5 mm тАУ had pushed the cityтАЩs post-monsoon rainfall to 308.5 mm against the October normal of 67 mm.
Due to cloudy sky conditions that persisted for most days during October, the infamous October heat phenomenon has not happened in Pune so far. Both the maximum and minimum temperatures largely remained below normal, officials added.
