Kathmandu, Sept 23, Monsoon will take a week more to exit this year. Although the monsoon normally lasts up to September 23, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Meteorological Forecasting Division said the trend of monsoon activities becoming more active is increasing.
Meteorologist Samir Shrestha said, “The wind should shift from west to east at the time of the monsoon’s exit. But this has not happened now. The wind is active towards the western parts at present. So, the monsoon will extend still one more week.”
Generally monsoon sets in on June 10 and lasts up to September 23. However, this year it commenced only on June 20, ten days late than normal. Therefore, the monsoon might extend by one and half week this year. According to Shrestha, last year too monsoon lasted until October 5 and the kind of condition required for the monsoon’s exit has not occurred at present.
Monsoon is considered to come to an end when 90 per cent of the weather stations throughout the country record zero rainfall for three or four days in a row. But the Division said rainfall is occurring throughout the country at present. Similarly, the monsoon system starts becoming weaker in the eastern parts when it is time for its exit.
However, it is said monsoon is active in the eastern parts, Barun Poudel, another meteorologist, said. He said this year recorded less than the average rain. “Although the duration of the monsoon has extended, there is no possibility of heavy rain. The days are sunny and light to moderate rain occurs towards the evening and night in some parts of the country.
But there is no continuous rain since the monsoon activities still persists. There is no reason to be alarmed in this,” Poudel said. Normally the monsoon rain occurs for 100 days but this number is increasing since some years.
According to the Division, the weather will be partly to generally cloudy throughout the country with chances of light to moderate rain accompanied by thunder and lightning in some places. This trend will persist on Tuesday and Wednesday also. As per the latest weather information provided by the Division, the minimum temperature was 18.5 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature 26.8 degrees Celsius in Kathmandu valley today. —
