Meteorological conditions associated with very sluggish advance of Indian summer monsoon in 2002

In the year 2002, the monsoon covered entire India on 15th August, one month later than the normal date. An attempt has been done in this study to analyse the meteorological conditions underlying this abnormally sluggish advance of the monsoon in 2002, using the NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis data sets. It has been observed that, there had been an anomalously high influence of systems in the westrelies during the advance phase of Indian Summer Monsoon in 2002. This has proved to be a factor unfavourable for the advance of the monsoon. Similar cases of hiatuses in the advance of monsoon during other recent years of delayed advance, viz., 2004 and 2006, have also been discussed.