Guwahati: Parts of Manipur and Mizoram saw the onset of the southwest monsoon on Saturday, with the IMD saying conditions are favourable for it to advance across the rest of the northeast over the next 2–3 days.For the first time in five years, the southwest monsoon has reached parts of the northeast almost on its normal schedule, as heavy rain began lashing parts of the region over the last 24 hours.“The southwest monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of west central & east central Arabian Sea, Karnataka, entire Goa, some parts of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, most parts of Tamil Nadu and southwest Bay of Bengal, some more parts of west central & northeast Bay of Bengal, entire east central Bay of Bengal and some parts of northwest Bay of Bengal, Mizoram and Manipur, today the 6th June, 2026,” the IMD’s Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) said in a special monsoon bulletin on Saturday.It added that the monsoon is expected to extend to more parts of the NE over the next 2–3 days.In 2024 and 2025, the monsoon reached the northeast earlier — on May 30 and May 24, respectively. In 2022, it arrived on June 2, and in 2023 on June 10. This year, the monsoon set in over Kerala on Thursday and reached the Northeast two days later, after Kerala and the northeast saw the monsoon arrive on the same day in 2025.“This year, due to the El Nino effect there was less monsoon driving force and that’s why the monsoon onset was delayed by a few days in the northeast,” said KN Mohan, a senior IMD scientist, to TOI.The IMD forecast isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall of 7–20 cm over northeast India over the next seven days, and warned of heavy rain at isolated places over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura on Sunday and Monday.In the last 24 hours up to 8:30am Saturday, isolated heavy rainfall of 7–11 cm was recorded in Meghalaya as the monsoon advanced.The IMD also forecast widespread to widespread rainfall over Arunachal Pradesh and Assam & Meghalaya through June 12, and over Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram & Tripura from June 7–12, as the monsoon is expected to cover the entire region in the coming days.
