The India Meteorological Department today said, unfavourable cross-equatorial flow over the Arabian Sea that aids in the progress of the monsoon is one of the reasons for its delay. It said, monsoon reached the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on 18th May but it is yet to cover the entire region.

The IMD said, conditions are likely to become favourable for the movement of the southwest monsoon into some more parts of south Bay of Bengal, Andaman Islands and north Andaman Sea during Wednesday-Thursday.

It is also expected to make an onset over Kerala on 6th June, five days after its normal onset date. The weather department said, the monsoon was yet to get traction from the Arabian Sea.

On the other hand, heatwave conditions are very likely to continue over Vidarbha and at isolated pockets over central Maharashtra, Telangana, east Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, east Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha during the next four-five days.