Heavy rainfall is set to continue across large parts of eastern, northeastern and southern India over the next few days, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
While rainfall activity remains concentrated over eastern, northeastern and western coastal states, northwest India is still awaiting widespread monsoon showers, with only isolated rainfall and thunderstorm activity forecast over the plains in the coming days.
Monsoon progress so far
The IMD said conditions are favourable for the southwest monsoon to advance into more parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, the remaining parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, as well as some parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand over the next three to four days.
The northern limit of the monsoon currently passes through parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar before extending into Nepal, indicating that the seasonal rains continue to progress gradually towards north India.
Heavy rainfall likely in several states
The IMD has forecast heavy rainfall over Bihar through the next few days, while Odisha is also likely to receive heavy rain. Konkan and Goa are expected to continue witnessing heavy rainfall, with similar conditions likely over parts of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana and parts of Tamil Nadu.
In eastern and northeastern India, heavy rainfall is also likely over sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya, and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
The weather office has warned of isolated extremely heavy rainfall over northern parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, and over Assam and Meghalaya.
Heavy rainfall has also been forecast over Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh in central India, accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds in several parts of the country.
Northwest India awaits widespread rains
Despite the advancing monsoon, widespread rainfall is yet to set in over northwest India.
The IMD has forecast isolated to scattered rain and thunderstorms over Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan over the coming days, while more widespread rainfall is expected over the western Himalayan region and eastern Uttar Pradesh towards the latter part of the forecast period.
Maximum temperatures across northwest India are likely to rise slightly over the next couple of days before falling by 3-5 degrees Celsius as rainfall activity increases. Heatwave to severe heatwave conditions are expected to persist in isolated pockets of east Uttar Pradesh in the short term.
Delhi weather forecast
Delhi is expected to witness partly cloudy skies with the possibility of very light to light rain, thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds during the afternoon and evening over the next few days, according to the IMD.
The city is likely to remain hot through the weekend, with maximum temperatures around 39-41 degrees Celsius before easing to 35-37 degrees by early next week as weather conditions become more favourable.
