By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu June 8: Monsoon for this season will be delayed by seven to 10 days of the normal time, meteorologists said on Sunday.
“Monsoon phenomena has now been seen in and around South Indian region of Kerala and Karnataka, and this might take another seven to 10 days to arrive in Nepal,” Pratibha Manandhar, senior meteorologist, told The Rising Nepal on Sunday.
Observing the present monsoon and other climatic conditions of South Asia, monsoon in Nepal will not begin before June 15, she said.
Normally, monsoon in Nepal begins on June 10 and withdraws from September 23 every year. Last year too, monsoon was delayed by 10 days to June 20. When the monsoon came late last year, it also extended until October 12, 2019. Monsoon normally withdraws from Nepal on September 23, but sometimes it prolongs up to first week of October.
Mani Ratna Shakya, another meteorologist, said that monsoon normally arrived every year from Kerala region of India. Easterly wind gets active during the monsoon period. In Kerala too, monsoon arrived on June 5.
Two weeks ago, Amphan cyclone developed in Bay of Bengal and this week another cyclone called Nisarga developed in the region and this might also cause a delay in the arrival of the monsoon in Nepal. “This happens because when one particular system developed like Amphan or Nisarga, it will take another two-three weeks for a new phenomenon to develop,” Shakya said.
As of today, pre-monsoon period is running in Nepal.
Meanwhile, the 16th meeting of the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF) held in Dhaka of Bangladesh on April 20-22, presumed that Nepal, including India, will have an average rainfall this year and above average rainfall in other countries, including mid-Pakistan region.
Ganga Nagarkoti, meteorologist at Meteorology Forecasting Division, under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said this year, State 1, Bagmati State and Gandaki State would witness average rainfall and other States would receive below average rainfall. When 90 to 110 per cent of rainfall occurs in a monsoon that is called an average rainfall and when it crosses above 110 per cent it is called above average rainfall and rainfall below 90 per cent is called below average.
In 2018, monsoon had arrived in Nepal on June 8, two days earlier from the normal date and lasted till October 5, 2018. Also in 2017, the country had welcomed monsoon on June 12.