Kathmandu, July 21

The Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology today said there was no chance of heavy rain across the country for the next few days.

The MFD said although the country witnessed isolated rainfall in the last few days, there was no possibility of heavy rainfall for at least a week.

According to meteorologist Subhash Rimal, low pressure area has shifted to the southern part from Delhi and Kolkata resulting in monsoon break.

According to Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, ‘active’ and ‘break’ are two monsoon phenomena. Heavy rain occurs when monsoon is active, while and no rain occurs during monsoon break.

DHM Director General Rishiram Sharma said once there was a monsoon break it could take up to seven to 10 days for the monsoon to revive.

This year, monsoon arrived in Nepal on June 12 after a delay of two days. A departure from its natural trend of spreading across the country within a week, the monsoon this year took more than two weeks to spread across the country.

Monsoon usually enters Nepal on June 10 and withdraws on September 23 every year. Last year, monsoon entered Nepal on June 15 after a delay of five days.

A seasonal outlook earlier issued by South Asian Climate Outlook Forum had predicted above normal rainfall over large tracts of South Asia during this year’s summer monsoon. Citing the SASCOF report, the MFD said Nepal was likely to receive normal rainfall during monsoon this year.

According to SASCOF report, some areas of the Tarai in the central and far-western regions will receive above-normal rainfall while hilly areas are likely to experience below-normal rainfall. Normal rainfall is most likely over the remaining parts of the country.

Once monsoon enters from the eastern region, it makes progressive westward advancement to the remaining parts of the country over the next few days through the central region. Monsoon lasts for an average of 105 days.

Nepal receives an average of 80 per cent of annual rainfall during monsoon, which originates in the Bay of Bengal and moves along the southern flanks of the Himalayas, bringing rains to Nepal. The average annual rainfall in Nepal is 1,600 mm, but it varies from place to place depending on climatic conditions.