The monsoon started retreating from West Rajasthan two days after its normal date and has since pulled back from Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, with the season running about 15% short.

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• The southwest monsoon began withdrawing from parts of West Rajasthan on September 19, 2026, against a normal withdrawal date of September 17.
• Last year's retreat began earlier, on September 14, and IMD's revised normal for withdrawal from northwest India is around September 17.
• By September 21 it had withdrawn from some parts of Punjab and Haryana and more parts of Rajasthan.
• By September 23 it had retreated from most of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, all of Delhi, and some parts of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
• IMD's analysis on September 27 placed the withdrawal line through Gurdaspur, Chandigarh, Muzaffarnagar, Aligarh, Dholpur, Udaipur and Deesa.
• IMD declares withdrawal when rain has ceased for five days, an anticyclone is established in the lower troposphere and atmospheric moisture drops markedly.
• IMD says the monsoon withdraws from the entire country only after October 1, once the circulation pattern changes.
• All-India rainfall was 695.6 mm as of September 19, with a deficit of about 15% and nearly 43% of India's area rain-deficient.
• IMD has linked the weak performance to El Niño conditions developing over the Pacific.
• A Bay of Bengal low-pressure system was forecast to bring heavy rain to Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and coastal Andhra Pradesh around September 23, showing that withdrawal in the northwest does not end rain elsewhere.
• October to December, the post-monsoon period, is one of the two major windows for tropical cyclone activity in the North Indian Ocean.