Monsoon has taken a pause in the state with high humidity pushing up the discomfort index by several notches on Sunday.

The weakening southwest monsoon is unlikely to bring any rain relief in the next four days at least, weathermen said on Sunday. "The weather will be humid for the next few days, resulting in discomfort. Monsoon has taken a brief pause. A good spell of rain is expected only after the next four days," said Abhishek Anand, deputy director of IMD's Ranchi Meteorological Centre.

Heavy rainfall, triggered by a low-pressure zone last week, left behind lots of moisture in the air, which in turn has spiked the humidity levels.

Ranchi and Jamshedpur recorded a RH (relative humidity) of around 90 per cent while Daltonganj was more stifling at 95 per cent. The RH in Bokaro and Dhanbad was close to 85 per cent while many places in southern, central and north-eastern parts of the state also recorded 90 per cent.

The average discomfort index, measured on the basis of temperature, humidity and wind pattern, was as high as 64 degrees, nine degrees above normal, on Sunday.

The index in Jamshedpur was 65 degrees, 10 degrees above normal, and in capital Ranchi 64 degrees, nine degrees above normal. Daltonganj recorded a discomfort index of 65 degrees, 10 notches above normal.

In several other districts like Dumka, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Pakur, Godda, Latehar, Chatra and Simdega, the index breached 60 degrees.

Clouds of varying shades over Dimna on the outskirts of the steel city on Sunday Bhola Prasad

The axis of the monsoon trough at mean sea level passed through Amritsar, Meerut, Bahraich, Muzaffarpur and Jalpaiguri.

Director of Ranchi Meteorological Centre S.D. Kotal said the southwest monsoon was weak over Jharkhand for the past 48 hours, resulting in the dry spell.

"We are expecting generally cloudy sky in most parts of the state during the next three-four days. A few places are likely to experience thunder and lightning accompanied by light rain," he said, adding that no downpour warning had been issued for Jharkhand for the next five days.

In the absence of widespread rainfall the rain deficit figure witnessed a rise of three per cent during the last 48 hours.

According to statistics, so far Jharkhand has received rainfall of 780.3 mm against a normal of 876.9 mm, a deficit of 11 per cent.