India, July 12 -- India's southwest monsoon season runs officially from June to September for 122 days. With one-third of the season over, rain's performance in the 2025 season appears to be normal at the national level. However, this has largely been accomplished by June rain and a large surplus in a small region, an HT analysis shows, with July so far the 21st driest July month in 125 years.

According to the gridded data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the normal rainfall for the June 1-July 10 period at the country level is 249.6 mm, which is the average rain for the 1971-2020 period and called the Long Period Average (LPA). June 1-July 10 rain in 2025 is 247.2 mm, just 1% less than the LPA. This suggests that the 2025 m...