The monsoon's north-ward progress, after hitting the southern tip on time, will be delayed by about a week and central India will not get monsoon rains till June 20, the Indian Institute of Tropica

After standing still for five days over the Andamans, the southwest monsoon advanced on Thursday to cover the entire island chain and weather department said rains would hit Kerala by May-end.

Indian Southwest Monsoon is knocking in and most likely to hit Indian coast by 29th May (slightly earlier than normal date of June 1st).

There is increasing concern that a weather event in the Pacific will bring bitter winter conditions to the UK and northern Europe.

There's good news on the monsoon front for farmers and policymakers. Rainfall is likely to be better than the gloomy forecasts of last month, particularly in June when farmers plant crops.

In a major relief to farmers, the crop insurance scheme for ginger, pea and tomato will be extended to more districts now.

The government today said it has put in place a contingency plan for 580 districts to tackle any situation arising out of below-normal monsoon.

Skymet still feels rain would be normal

For many of the past five years, Marthe Efoulan, a 42-year-old farmer in Meyomessala, in southern Cameroon, has been fooled into planting her crops too soon.

MEERUT: With the city registering a pleasant 36 degree Centigrade on May 1, the Met department has predicted the entire month would follow the trend.