After bringing bountiful showers across large parts of India, the south-west monsoon has embarked on its return journey, beginning from western Rajasthan and Kutch.

The process of withdrawal of the southwest monsoon, which has brought five per cent excess rains across the country, started on Monday, but the weather office has forecast widespread rains in several regions over the coming week.

"Southwest monsoon has withdrawn from some parts of West Rajasthan and Kachchh on September 23, 2024 against the normal date of September 17. Conditions are favourable for further withdrawal of southwest monsoon from some more parts of West Rajasthan and adjoining areas of Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat during next 24 hours," the India Meteorological Department said.

While most of the country received normal to excess showers, five of the 36 meteorological subdivisions experienced deficient rainfall -- Jammu and Kashmir (-26 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (-20), Arunachal Pradesh (-30 per cent), Bihar (-28 per cent) and Punjab (-27 per cent).

Of the total 36 sub-divisions, nine have recorded excess rains, including Rajasthan (74 percent), Gujarat (68 percent), Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Usually, the southwest monsoon makes its onset over Kerala by June 1 and covers the entire country by the first week of July. It starts withdrawing from northwest India from the middle of September, withdrawing entirely by October 15.

This season the country has received 880.8 mm rainfall between June 1 and September 23 against the normal of 837.7 mm for the period under review.

The weather office has forecast formation of a low pressure area over west-central Bay of Bengal on Tuesday, which could bring rains to some states along the eastern coast.

The IMD has forecast fairly widespread rains with very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall over coastal and north Interior Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, central, east and northeast India during the coming week.

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