Weather specialists say a monsoon break means there is no prospect of rain for many days across north-western and central India, and that drought conditions could sharpen as a result.

The change has come at a time when monsoon rainfall in India is already well below average. The weather department said on Saturday that rainfall is likely to remain low for the next six to seven days across north-west India, west-central India and the southern peninsula.

Satellite imagery makes the picture plain. Navdeep Dahiya, founder of a private organisation called Live Weather of India, wrote on X: "From the Western Ghats to the core monsoon zone inland, there is no rainfall anywhere. Cloud presence is negligible over both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal."

The scene, he wrote, looks less like the morning of 12 July than of 12 April, and there is no prospect of improvement before 18 July.

Mahesh Palawat, a meteorologist and head of Skymet Weather, told BBC News Hindi that there is no prospect of rain in west-northern and central India up to 19 or 20 July. Rainfall will be severely affected in several places including Delhi and the adjoining National Capital Region, he said, where temperatures may stay around 37 to 38 degrees Celsius.

A monsoon break in itself is not unusual, but this one is. "A monsoon break happens once or twice in July and August. For the past few years the monsoon break has not been complete. Now there is no rain in north-west India and central India, but there is rain in eastern India," Mr Palawat said.

Farmers' anxiety is growing, because this is the kharif season — the monsoon crop — when a large part of the farming year depends on rain. West Bengal has had continuous rain, but across much of the rest of the country the sowing window is passing dry.

Source: BBC Bangla