Monsoon recovers across India, but North-East still awaits rains

The recovery is set to broaden as it pushes into North-West India this week, where the deficit narrowed to 22 per cent on Monday. East and North-East India remain the lone laggards, with rainfall still 42 per cent below healthy. however the region’s towering climatological rainfall benchmark, shaped by the Himalayas and the moisture-rich Bay of Bengal, means even substantial rain often leaves it looking greater deficient than the rest of the country.

The monsoon, however, seemed to have stalled to yet another time on Monday, delaying the final phase of its advance across the country. Its northern limit passed through Jamnagar, Udaipur, Ajmer, Jhunjhunu, Hisar and Bathinda to the third successive day, according to the IMD.

Conditions are favourable to the monsoon to advance into greater parts of Gujarat, the remaining areas of Haryana and Punjab, and additional parts of Rajasthan over the next three days. The monsoon normally covers the entire country, including Rajasthan, by July 8. This year, however, it is likely to be delayed by a few days.

greater heavy rain

There is no let-up to parts of already soaked West India and Central India. The IMD has predicted heavy to very heavy rain with extremely heavy falls over Konkan and Gujarat to another day on Tuesday, and over Madhya Maharashtra on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy rainfall is also likely over Coastal Karnataka on these days.

Depression holds on

Meanwhile, the depression that crossed the Odisha coast and moved inland was centred on Monday about 60 km north-northeast of Rourkela, 70 km south-southwest of Ranchi, 100 km east-southeast of Jashpurnagar and 180 km southeast of Daltonganj. It is expected to track north-west across Jharkhand, north Chhattisgarh and adjoining East Madhya Pradesh until Tuesday, sustaining widespread rain over the region.

The seasonal trough across North-West India, the principal rain-bearing axis that channels moisture from the Bay into the interior, extended on Monday from south-west Rajasthan to the east-central Bay, passing through Madhya Pradesh, north Chhattisgarh and the depression over south Jharkhand and adjoining north interior Odisha. Its alignment was close to its climatologically favourable position, a configuration typically associated with active monsoon conditions across central and eastern India.

The upper-atmosphere shear zone, a corridor of strong wind discontinuity that often enhances deep convection and intense rainfall, stretched from Nashik through Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Chandrapur in Maharashtra to the Puri-Bhubaneswar region of Odisha. Along the west coast, the offshore trough extended almost uninterrupted from south Gujarat to north Kerala coast. Together, these features continued to support active monsoon conditions over several parts of the country, while substantial areas of Peninsular India remained largely rain-free.

Published on July 6, 2026