Even as the southwest monsoon retreats from Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi, a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal brought heavy rain and coastal alerts to Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, showing withdrawal is a gradual regional process.

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• The southwest monsoon began withdrawing from parts of West Rajasthan on September 19, 2026, two days after the normal date of September 17.
• Withdrawal progressed to parts of Punjab and Haryana and more of Rajasthan by September 21, and to most of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, all of Delhi and parts of UP and Gujarat by September 23.
• Separately, a low-pressure area formed over the north Andaman Sea on the evening of September 19 and intensified into a depression by September 21 over the west-central Bay of Bengal.
• The system deepened further into a deep depression on September 22, prompting an IMD orange alert for Andhra Pradesh and Odisha with warnings of waterlogging and rough seas.
• The deep depression was forecast to cross the north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coast between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur between the night of September 23 and morning of September 24.
• Several districts in Odisha closed educational institutions until September 24 as a precaution against the approaching weather system.
• The system made landfall near Kalingapatnam, Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur, and was expected to retain deep-depression intensity for about 12 hours before gradually weakening while moving inland.
• Wind speeds of 50-60 kmph were forecast for Chhattisgarh, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana, with gusts over the Bay of Bengal reaching up to 75 kmph.
• Heavy rain was also forecast for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam, Meghalaya, eastern Madhya Pradesh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Marathwada, which received a yellow alert.
• The IMD said conditions were meanwhile turning favourable for further monsoon withdrawal from the remaining parts of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan and neighbouring states.
• The overlap of monsoon retreat in the northwest with an active depression in the east illustrates that withdrawal unfolds gradually across regions rather than as a single nationwide event.