The rains, and relief, are on their way and would shower their blessings on the scorched state by next week, weathermen said on Thursday.

Ashish Sen, director (radar), India Met department, Patna, told The Telegraph: “The wind direction has changed from westerly to easterly in sub-Himalayan Bengal from the day before yesterday (Tuesday). This has sped up the flow of the eastern wing of the southwest monsoon towards north Bihar. It has already covered the entire sub-Himalayan Bengal. As a result of this, advancement of monsoon thunderstorms, accompanied by rainfall, has been observed in the northern parts of the state.”

He added: “On the basis of the prevailing conditions, we expect that monsoon would enter north Bihar between June 13 and 15.”

Last year, monsoon had entered the state on June 15.

Abdul Sattar, assistant professor of meteorology, Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa, echoed the Met department’s observation. “Monsoon is progressing at a very high speed in sub-Himalayan Bengal. It is expected that monsoon would enter the northeastern region of Bihar in four to seven days. Going by the present calculations, Kishanganj would be the first district to be hit by the monsoon.”

Sattar claimed that favourable dynamics in weather conditions over the Bay of Bengal and in the sub-Himalayan region on the mainland have led to speeding up of monsoon in the region.

Earlier, weather scientists had claimed that the arrival of monsoon in Bihar was likely to be delayed by five days from the normal date of arrival due to rise of 0.5°C in the surface temperature of the Pacific Ocean.