The southwest monsoon covered Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, a day after it entered the central state from the eastern side, with India Meteorological Department issuing an orange alert warning of torrential rains in the next 24 hours.

The orange alert warned that heavy (64.5 mm to 115.5 mm) to very heavy (115.6 mm to 204.4 mm) rainfall with extremely heavy rain (above 204. 5 mm) is likely to lash isolated places in east MP. Heavy to very heavy rainfall may also occur at isolated places in western parts.

“The monsoon forayed into MP from its eastern part, bordering Chhattisgarh, on Saturday evening. The fast-moving rain-bearing system covered the entire MP, including its western part, home to state capital Bhopal by Sunday afternoon,” IMD Bhopal centre director R Balasubramanian told PTI.

On Sunday morning, the IMD was expecting the monsoon to cover the entire state by June 28 or June 29.

Balasubramanian said three weather systems – the one over the Arabian sea that has come up were causing moisture incursion in MP leading to rainfall.

Madhya Pradesh is very likely to see a wet week ahead, he said.

Another weather expert and former senior IMD meteorologist PK Saha said that the monsoon has run through MP in 24 hours.

The maximum temperature in the state averaged between 30 to 40 degrees Celsius, while the average minimum temperature remained between 20 and 27 degrees Celsius on Sunday following intermittent showers in parts of the state for well over two days, as per IMD data.

Four days back, the maximum and minimum temperatures in parts of the state hovered over 40 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Meanwhile, many districts in Madhya Pradesh are receiving showers on Sunday. Jabalpur district in east MP recorded 22 mm of rainfall between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm, the weather office said.

Last year, the monsoon arrived in the state on June 16, a day before its normal schedule, and covered 80 per cent of the state by June 21, as per official data.

This year, the southwest monsoon hit Kerala on June 8, seven days behind its normal schedule. It covered the entire Kerala in one day and entered Karnataka. After 11 days, the rain-bearing system started moving some three days back.

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