monsoon update

this year surprised us with a very early start of rains in mumbai. june 6th and 7th (the very first weekend of june).
till date the records (in colaba and santa cruz weather stations) show that we are more than on track in mumbai.
the records, however, do not seem to play out in reality.
there has been more and longer dry spells during the last 40 days.
and maharastra has announced a drought-like situation.
if one sees the monsoon map of maharashtra till date, it is clear that the monsoon has been a little truant this year. except the western maharashtra belt, the rest of the state is far below the expected rain levels.
since the already low rainfall areas are getting less than anticipated, the cropping patterns will certainly get delayed/affected, etc.
so we could expect the farmers of vidarbha to have another tough year ahead of them. hope they bounce back from this better than the earlier years.