Monsoon to arrive in MP and Odisha by the end of June, IMD forecasts heavy rain in the states

An IMD official said that The south-west monsoon will likely arrive in Madhya Pradesh over the weekend, even as 18 districts recorded more than 1.5 inch pre-monsoon showers in just 12 hours ending 8.30 pm on Friday. Over the last two days, intermittent rain has been lashing parts of MP, giving much-needed respite to people from the sweltering heat.
"The south-west monsoon is likely to hit Madhya Pradesh on June 24 or 25. It is expected to set in over state capital Bhopal on June 26 or 27," India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Bhopal director R Balasubramanian told PTI.

By June 29, he said it is likely to cover the entire state, adding that the rain-bearing system is expected to foray into MP from its eastern side, bordering Chhattisgarh, where the monsoon arrived on Friday. In Bhopal, showers that started some time after noon continued till late in the evening. Last year, the monsoon had arrived in the state on June 16, a day before its normal schedule, and by June 21 had covered 80 per cent of the state.

The monsoon arrived in Kerala on June 8, seven days behind its normal schedule. "Three systems are bringing moisture in Madhya Pradesh at present.These are a cyclonic circulation lying over central Uttar Pradesh, another cyclonic circulation over the west-central region and adjoining the north-west Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha," Balasubramanian said.

He added that a trough line is running from south Punjab to central Uttar Pradesh, where one of the cyclonic circulations lay. The maximum temperature in the state hovered between 30 degrees Celsius and 40 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature was between 21 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius following intermittent showers over the last 48 hours, the IMD said.

With the southwest monsoon covering the whole of Odisha, the India Meteorological Department on Friday issued heavy-rainfall warning for several districts of the state till June 27. "The southwest monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of Odisha and thus covered the entire Odisha today," IMD said in a bulletin. It forecast heavy rainfall (7-20cm) at one or two places in Cuttack, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj on Saturday.

Heavy rain (7-11 cm) is also very likely to occur at one or two places in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Khordha, Puri, Nayagarh, Angul, Kandhamal, Boudh, Sonepur, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Sundargarh. Odisha recorded an average of 21.3-mm rainfall in the past 24 hours, the Met office said.