Difficult to predict Indian monsoon: CM

Mumbai: The monsoon arrived in the city more than a week behind schedule this year. The monsoon usually hits Mumbai seven to nine days after reaching Kerala. 
    However, if the arrival dates of the monsoon in the last seven years are taken into account, it is evident that it takes five days to a month to move from Kerala to Mumbai. 
    But even as monsoon forecasts continue to be a subject of ridicule, the weathermen have found a supporter in CM Prithviraj Chavan. "The Indian summer monsoon is difficult to predict," Chavan said at a function on Sunday. He said despite technological advancements, predicting the monsoon is still difficult. 
    The monsoon arrived in the city last year on June 5, its second-earliest after 1969. In 2011, first-day rainfall was 17.4mm in Colaba and 32.7mm in Santa Cruz. This year, Colaba and Santa Cruz recorded a greater intensity of first-day rainfall, at 31mm and 33.2mm respectively, till Sunday evening. "There is also an approximate three-degree dip in temperature," said N Y Apte, deputy director general, Indian Meteorological Department, Mumbai. 
    He added that the IMD stations in Pune and Delhi would make a long-range forecast for the monsoon on June 25. "IMD's long-range forecast made in April will be revised then," Apte said. Meanwhile the IMD has issued an alert for a high tide of 4.83m at 1.34pm on July 5 in Mumbai. Rain dampens pulse polio campaign Mumbai: Rains hit Sunday's pulse polio drive with fewer children getting immunized. Executive 
health officer Dr Anil Bandivadekar said that more than 5.84 lakh children were immunized as part of the National Immunization Day (NID). 
    "The coverage was less as compared to last year when nearly six lakh children were given the polio dose. It could be because of the rain," he said. Children below five years of age were administered the trivalent vaccine that protects them against all the three strains of the polio virus. TNN