India, Oct. 11 -- After a week of relatively clear skies, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday officially announced the monsoon's withdrawal. As per the IMD, this year's monsoon began on May 26, its earliest onset since 1950, and ended on October 10, its earliest withdrawal since 2018.

Historically, the monsoon used to retreat between October 10-15, but the past two decades have seen extremely irregular weather patterns with the earliest monsoon withdrawal on September 30, 2002, and the latest, on October 28, 2020. In 2021, the rains lasted till October 14, and in 2022 and 2023, the monsoon departed only on October 23.

As per data from the weather bureau, this monsoon, on a daily basis Colaba logged less rain than expecte...