More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025

 

By Shreya Shetty

 

MUMBAI – After getting a head-start three days ahead of its normal date, the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon is likely to stall for two weeks due to unfavourable weather conditions, according to a senior official at the India Meteorological Department. As such, the withdrawal of monsoon from over Mumbai could be delayed, though it is unlikely to be an unusually long delay, the official said.

 

The southwest monsoon began withdrawing from parts of Rajasthan on Sunday, three days ahead of its normal date of withdrawal, the India Meteorological Department said. The southwest monsoon usually begins withdrawing from the country around Sept. 17 and withdraws from the entire country around Oct. 15. The normal date of monsoon withdrawal over Mumbai is Oct. 8.

 

"There will be a break in withdrawal for two weeks. Conditions are not conducive for withdrawal to continue--we need dry days to declare it (the progression of withdrawal)," the official said.

 

The progression of the monsoon withdrawal usually depends on the fulfilment of certain criteria, which include the absence of rainfall over the given region for at least a few consecutive days. However, most regions of the country are still seeing spells of heavy rainfall, with the development of weather systems such as cyclonic circulations and troughs over the country. 

 

"We are likely to see a wet Navratri. According to my observations via satellite images, there is still moisture," the official said, adding, "When it is dry then we can declare a continuation of the withdrawal, when satellite images show dryness." Navratri will fall Sept. 22–Oct. 2.

 

According to the weather department, the withdrawal of southwest monsoon paused after withdrawing from some parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, and Punjab on Tuesday. The line of withdrawal of southwest monsoon currently passes through Bhatinda in Punjab, Fatehabad in Haryana, Pilani and Ajmer in Rajasthan and Deesa and Bhuj in Gujarat.

 

However, Mumbai is unlikely to see a major delay in monsoon withdrawal, the official said. "It (withdrawal) is unlikely to be unusually delayed. It is normal that it will get delayed by two days or even by a week."

 

The official added that it is highly improbable that the withdrawal from the city will be delayed till the end of October. Since 2001, Mumbai has seen a heightened delay in withdrawal only once, in 2020, when the monsoon current exited the city on Oct. 28, data from the weather department showed. 

 

A Suryachandra Rao, the director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, said the complete withdrawal is likely to be delayed beyond the normal date of Oct. 15 due to the development of La Nina conditions. "This time also the withdrawal throughout the country will be a little delayed... it will be little delayed because you have La Nina conditions developed in the Pacific... So, we expect a delay there. It is very difficult to quantify the number of days. So, we know that in recent times, the delay was almost plus or minus 10 days," Rao had told Informist on Monday in an interview.  End

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.