If the forecast of the Indian Meteorological Department is any indication, southwest monsoon will be a little late in Jharkhand.

Usually, monsoon reaches Jharkhand on June 10. But the climate research division of IMD-Pune has revised the date to June 15 for Jharkhand.

In the last few years, the monsoon has played hide-and-seek with the deadline.

Last year, monsoon was late by 11 days, reaching Jharkhand on June 21. In 2018, southwest monsoon touched the Kerala coast three days early on May 29 but reached Jharkhand on June 25, a delay of 15 days. In 2017 and 2016, monsoon was six days late.

The IMD on Friday said conditions are very likely to be favourable for the onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala around June 1.

Weathermen said a low-pressure area developing over southeast Arabian Sea this weekend is the major push behind the faster onset of the monsoon in Kerala.

Satellite imagery, wind chart analysis and other weather parameters on Friday suggested that conditions are becoming favourable for the advancement of southwest monsoon over the southern part of Andaman Sea and southeast Bay of Bengal in the next 48 hours.

However, weathermen in Jharkhand had nothing encouraging to offer.

“Even if monsoon arrives in Kerala on June 1, it is expected to get a bit delayed here as currents are weak. Amphan sucked out significant amounts of moisture from the Bay of Bengal. The advance of monsoon was stalled over the Andaman Sea for almost 10 days after its arrival on May 17. It was only on Thursday that the monsoon made further progress to the Maldives-Comorin area,” said S.D. Kotal, director of Ranchi Meteorological Centre, after studying the satellite inputs.

The good news, however, is that the IMD has predicted normal monsoon in Jharkhand. Kotal said the first and second phases of long-range forecasts were an indicator of a good monsoon. “We are expecting normal monsoon with even distribution in Jharkhand,” he said.

Ruling out extreme day temperatures in the next four to five days, Kotal said central, south-east and north-east Jharkhand were likely to witness thunderstorm and rain due to a cyclonic circulation over Chhattisgarh and a low-pressure trough over Jharkhand.