The southwest monsoon has entered parts of north Bengal, the Met office said on Thursday.

An official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the monsoon is likely to enter deeper into Bengal in the next one or two days.

Monsoon’s usual arrival date in Calcutta and other parts of south Bengal is around June 10. It is still unclear when the monsoon will reach Calcutta this year.

“The southwest monsoon has entered Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar. They have either entered all or parts of these districts. The monsoon has also entered small parts of South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur districts,” said the IMD official.

Another official said that the northern limit of the monsoon was passing through Balurghat (in South Dinajpur).

“Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon over some more parts of Bengal during the next one or two days,” the IMD said in a bulletin.

The southwest monsoon hit Kerala on May 24, marking its earliest arrival over the Indian mainland since 2009, when it reached the southern state on May 23, the IMD has said.

Normally, the southwest monsoon makes its onset over Kerala by June 1 and covers the entire country by July 8. It starts retreating from northwest India around September 17 and withdraws completely by October 15.

IMD’s bulletin on the progress of southwest monsoon, issued on Thursday, mentioned that monsoon had “further advanced into some more parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha”.

It had advanced over “some more parts of the north Bay of Bengal, remaining parts
of northeastern states and some parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal and entire
Sikkim”.

Last week, the IMD said India is likely to receive above-normal rainfall in June. The forecast, released as part of the IMD’s second-stage long-range outlook, indicates that rainfall in June 2025 is expected to exceed 108 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA), the IMD said.