Thirty-Seven Days to Cross India
As this year's rains begin their retreat — with India 15% short of normal — here is the map of how the southwest monsoon normally arrives: a front of rain that lands in Kerala on 1 June and takes five weeks to reach the last corner of the Thar Desert.
From onset over Kerala (1 June) to covering the entire country (8 July) — the normal pace of the monsoon's march, per IMD's 1961–2019 normals. The old 1901–40 normal said 15 July.
A seven-week wave, south-west to north-west
Read the map's colours as a timeline: the Andamans get rain first, the Thar last. Laid flat, the arrival dates form one gradient.
In 2020 IMD replaced its 1901–40 normals. The monsoon now normally covers the country a week earlier (8 July, not 15 July) — but much of central India now gets it 3–7 days later, and it lingers in the north-west more than two weeks longer.
Arrive late, leave early
The places the monsoon reaches last are also the places it abandons first — so the north-west gets the shortest season.
Bars run from normal onset to normal withdrawal (IMD city normals); day counts derived by Daily Dose. Bar shade: darker = longer season.
Seventy-three times wetter, same country
The Khasi Hills catch the Bay of Bengal branch head-on; the Thar sits at the far, tired end of the Arabian Sea branch.
2026: a weak season on a strong run
Five of the last seven seasons finished above normal. This one is tracking the lowest in the series.
All-India June–September rainfall as a percentage of the Long Period Average (868.6 mm). IMD calls 96–104% "normal."
*2026 is season-to-date through 22 September (706.9 mm vs 832.4 mm normal for that window), not a final figure. By mid-September, 41% of India's area was rain-deficient. The retreat began from West Rajasthan on 19 September, near the new normal of 17 September.
Half the farmland is waiting on this map
Irrigation softens the blow, but much of India still plants when the colour band arrives.
Why it matters
The two arms.Rain arrives on two fronts: the Arabian Sea branch hits Kerala on 1 June; the Bay of Bengal branch floods the northeast by 5 June — before Mumbai sees a drop.
The diagonal.Isochrones run south-west to north-east. The last place to get wet is the Thar, in the far north-west — which is also the first place the rain leaves.
The squeeze.Delhi's normal season is 90 days; Dibrugarh's is 132. The map's colour is also a measure of how long the rain stays.
The spread.From Jaisalmer to Mawsynram, annual rain varies ~73-fold across a single country.