Monsoon hits northeast region

The monsoon on Friday hit the entire northeast belt even as pre-monsoon showers lashed Maharashtra, the weather department said in New Delhi on Friday.

The monsoon, which usually strikes the northeast in the first week of June, had advanced there on Thursday.

"Remaining areas of the northeast such as parts of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh received rainfall on Friday," Dr B P Yadav of the Indian Meterological Department said.

The monsoon also covered parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal. However, Gangetic West Bengal is yet to see monsoon rains, he said.

There was good news for Maharashtra as pre-monsoon rains lashed parts of the state. "The progress of monsoon this year has been delayed. Mumbai, which usually gets covered by June 10, is yet to see monsoon showers. Conditions are favourable for the advance of monsoon into southern parts of Maharashtra in the next two days," he said.

Heavy rains were reported from coastal Karnataka, Kerala, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, while moderate rains were reported from Goa and the northeast, he said.

So far, the monsoon has covered Goa, southern parts of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, most parts of Karnataka and south and east Bay areas.

Against its normal arrival on June 1, the southwest monsoon hit Kerala on June 5. It was delayed by about 10 days in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.