India experienced 5th wettest monsoon since 2001, more rain in October, says IMD

A well-marked low pressure area near Kutch will lead to rain in Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra until Thursday, it said. Another fresh low pressure system is likely to develop over the north Bay of Bengal and its land-ward movement will result in rain over Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra till early next week, the IMD’s extended-range forecast suggested.

“Due to these unfavourable conditions, we do not see any further withdrawal of the monsoon from central and eastern India regions during next one week. Also, the overall monsoon withdrawal may be delayed and would not be completed before October 12,” Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general, IMD, said on Tuesday.

The line of monsoon withdrawal continued to pass through Veraval, Bharuch, Ujjain, Jhansi, and Shahjahanpur.

This year, India experienced the 5th wettest monsoon season since 2001. With this,

India recorded its second consecutive ‘above’ normal monsoon rainfall.

“Even though there were many rain-related disasters that struck various parts of the country, there was good rainfall distribution both spatially and temporally,” the IMD chief noted.

The final quarter of 2025 will see ‘above’ normal rainfall over south peninsular India which benefits from the winter or northeast monsoon during October and December.

Northeast monsoon affects Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and south-interior Karnataka. The normal date for the onset of the northeast monsoon is October 20.

During October, the all-India rainfall is expected to be ‘above’ normal over majority geographical areas except Jammu and Kashmir, southern regions of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

“The above normal rainfall during October could be associated with the delayed monsoon withdrawal and the development of rain-bearing low pressure systems,” Mohapatra said.

Accordingly, the day temperatures during October are likely to remain below normal, except over the northeast India region. But nights will remain warmer due to cloudy and overcast conditions.

The IMD said that from the prevailing neutral El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions, the sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific Ocean were likely to cool and enter a weak phase of La Nina. El Nino and La Nina are the two phases of ENSO, an ocean-atmospheric phenomenon capable of influencing the global weather.

“However, the La Nina event will be for a short duration before neutral ENSO conditions are re-established,” he said.