KATHMANDU, Sept 26: With festive season just around the corner, denizens of Kathmandu Valley are already starting to leave for their home towns. Weather, however, is likely to pose a trouble for them as the ongoing monsoon is still not showing any signs of withdrawal.
The delay in the retreat of monsoon will likely to cause trouble to those who have to travel far to their hometown to celebrate the nearing Dashain festival. Road obstructions due to monsoon-induced landslides are still being reported from across the country. Bad weather across the country for the past two days has also reinforced their fears.
The present whether condition is likely to show significant improvement in coming one or two days, according to Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD) of Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM). However, the improvement in weather does not indicate the retreat of monsoon.
"At the moment, we are not in a position to declare the exact date of monsoon withdrawal. But based on our weather forecasts, we can still expect heavy rains as monsoon is likely to linger," said meteorologist Subash Rimal.
The monsoon normally starts from June 10. It, however, entered Nepal five days late this year on June 15, according to the MFD. Due to the delay in its onset, the withdrawal, which usually takes place on September 23, too has been delayed, Rimal clarified.
However, this is not the first time the country faced delay in monsoon withdrawal. The monsoon that started on June 13 last year retreated completely only on October 4, which is 11 days late than the normal withdrawal date. In fact, monsoon withdrawal has been significantly pushed back since 1998, as per the MFD reports.
As per the trend analysis, withdrawal of the monsoon this year will not take place before October 4, or may even stretch by a few weeks, meteorologist Rimal informed.
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