From correspondents in Delhi, India, 08:00 PM IST

Rain gods don't seem to be smiling on the national capital this monsoon as Delhi is likely to receive much less rainfall than the national average, a forecast released by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Wednesday.

'Current observations and forecasts suggest that monsoon will advance over most parts of the country except northwest India by June end. In northwest India, the monsoon will onset in the first week of July,' Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan, who released the data here, said.

The northwest India covers Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Chavan said the northwest India will receive 81 percent of the average rainfall, which is far below the national average of 93 percent.

'The southwest monsoon rainfall in the country will likely be below normal between June to September,' Chavan told reporters here.

Describing the percentage of rainfall in the monsoon season, he said the country received 18 percent rainfall in June, 33 percent in July, 29 percent in August and 20 percent in September.

'Rainfall for the country in the month of June is 48.8 mm against a normal of 101.7 mm with a deficiency of 52 percent. In northwest India, it was 21 mm almost 48 percent deficient,' he said.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)