Southwest Monsoon withdraws from Northeast India, IMD predicts dry spell ahead

The Southwest Monsoon has withdrawn from entire parts of Northeast region, comprising the eight states, on Tuesday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said.

A senior IMD official said that the Southwest monsoon was withdrawn from the entire Northeast region, comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura -- last year (2024) on the same date (October 14).

He noted that the four-month-long (from June to September) Southwest monsoon this year entered the region on May 26, two days after the monsoon entered the country through Kerala on May 24.

"Like previous years, this year, too, the Southwest monsoon was more or less normal in the Northeastern region," the official said, adding that for the country as a whole, a monsoon is considered normal if the rainfall is within plus and minus 10 per cent of the long-period average.

He said that not only from the Northeastern region, the Southwest monsoon has withdrawn from most parts of eastern India, including West Bengal.

According to the IMD official, the conditions are favourable for further withdrawal of the Southwest monsoon from the remaining parts of the country during the next few days.

He said that the sky will be mostly cloudless, and the humidity in the air will also decrease.

This year, Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have been battered by record rainfall.

With the monsoon's departure, dry Northwesterly winds have begun to sweep across West Bengal and the Northeastern region, signalling a seasonal transition, the official added.

Earlier, the national weather bulletin had indicated that conditions were favourable for the monsoon's withdrawal from the remaining parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Odisha, Telangana and from the Northeast within the next few days.

With its final withdrawal from the Northeast region on Tuesday, the mountainous region now braces for a dry and cooler spell in the weeks ahead, signalling the start of the winter season.