New Delhi, June 15
The plains of Punjab and Haryana already experiencing pre-monsoon rain will receive monsoon showers within the next three days, almost 10 days in advance.

The seasonal rain has arrived early in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand. The India Meteorological Department says conditions are favourable for it to further advance into some more parts of Rajasthan, remaining parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh along with Punjab and Haryana in the next three days.

The monsoon today further advanced into remaining parts of West Bengal and Sikkim, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir, some parts of east Madhya Pradesh and some more parts of east Uttar Pradesh.

The northern limit of monsoon (NLM) is passing through Udaipur, Guna, Satna, Varanasi, Baharaich, Pantnagar, Dehradun, Una and Jammu. Monsoon has so far reached more than two-thirds of India and is expected to cover the entire country earlier than its normal slated date of July 15, says the meteorological department.

The monsoon rain has been good and its early onset has led to early sowing, particularly of coarse cereals in drought-hit rain-fed regions of Marathwada, Vidarbha, central Maharashtra, Karnataka and Saurashtra and Kutch.

Monsoon has been 28 per cent excess since its onset over Kerala on June 1. The rainfall in July is expected to be 101 per cent of the normal and that in August will be 96 per cent of the normal. There are, however, fears that early rain may result in a break-monsoon period.