The first day of the four-month monsoon season, which began on June 1, witnessed 55 per cent below normal rainfall across the country with 26 states and union territories reported to have either deficient or no rain. India Meteorological Department on Tuesday said that monsoon onset over Kerala is likely to be on June 4.According to the rainfall data for June 1, three states received ‘large excess’ rainfall, four states ‘excess’ and three states ‘normal’ and altogether these 10 states comprise 37 per cent of the country’s geographical area. On the other hand, in the remaining 63 per cent area, four states reported ‘no rain’, 16 had ‘large deficient’ and six had ‘deficient’ rainfall.‘Large excess’ has been defined as 60 per cent above normal, ‘excess’ means rainfall between 120 per cent and 159 per cent, normal is between 81 per cent and 119 per cent of LPA, ‘deficient’ means rainfall between 61 per cent and 80 per cent of LPA and ‘large deficient’ means more than 60 per cent below normal.In Central India, only Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh had normal or higher rainfall while other states remained mostly dry. The north-west region was also deficient, though Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand had reported some rains.In the south peninsula, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had excess, but Kerala and Karnataka had deficient rainfall, the data show.In the pre-monsoon season (March-May), the overall rainfall in the country was 131.3 mm, which is 1 per cent above normal of 130.6 mm. Only north-west India had 6 per cent below normal while all other three meteorological subdivisions had above normal rainfall.“The Northern Limit of Monsoon continues to pass through 10°N/60°E, 9°N/65°E, 8.5°N/70°E, 8°N/75°E, 7.8°N/78°E, 8°N/80°E, 10°N/80°E, 13°N/87°E, 16°N/90°E, 19°N/93°E and 22°N/97°E. Conditions are favourable for further advance of monsoon into some more parts of south-west and south-east Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep Islands, some parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, some more parts of south-west, west-central, east-central and north-east Bay of Bengal, and remaining parts of south-east Bay of Bengal around June 4,” IMD said.Published on June 2, 2026