NEW DELHI: India’s southwest monsoon is entering its final phase, with satellite imagery showing a significant change in cloud patterns across the country as a Western Disturbance moves over northern India and monsoon activity gradually retreats.
Images captured by India’s INSAT-3DS satellite on September 23 and September 27 highlight the evolving weather pattern. While the earlier image showed extensive cloud cover across northern and northeastern India, the latest imagery indicates relatively clearer skies over large parts of northwestern and central India.
The shift comes as the southwest monsoon continues its withdrawal from the country. At the same time, a Western Disturbance—an eastward-moving weather system originating from the Mediterranean region—is influencing weather conditions across northern India.
The system can produce cloud cover, rain and thunderstorms over northern parts of the country, particularly when it interacts with moisture from other weather systems. Its interaction with a depression over central India has contributed to rainfall across parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Delhi-NCR region even as the monsoon withdrawal progresses.
The southwest monsoon has already begun withdrawing from parts of northwest India and is expected to gradually retreat towards central and eastern regions. Rainfall activity is likely to decline across several parts of the country towards the end of September, with September 29 emerging as a possible turning point in the transition towards generally drier conditions.
However, the withdrawal of the monsoon is not governed by a fixed calendar date. The India Meteorological Department assesses several factors, including sustained cessation of rainfall, declining atmospheric moisture and changes in wind circulation, before declaring further withdrawal.
Even after the monsoon retreats, isolated weather systems may continue to produce rainfall, particularly across southern and eastern parts of India, marking the gradual transition from the southwest monsoon to the post-monsoon season.
