The southwest monsoon has advanced into parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the India Meteorological Department said on Thursday.

This has happened six days ahead of schedule, the Hindustan Times reported.

“Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, remaining parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha, entire West Bengal and Jharkhand and some parts of Bihar and east Uttar Pradesh and remaining parts of north Bay of Bengal during next 48 hours,” the weather department wrote on Twitter on Thursday afternoon.

Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the Regional Weather Forecasting Centre in Delhi, told the Hindustan Times that monsoon is also expected to arrive in the Capital early. It usually arrives in Delhi by the end of June.

Srivastava added that certain conditions will have to be met before the weather department can announce the onset of monsoon in the Capital.

“It should have rained in a large area for a couple of days, the easterly wind pattern should be established, and it should have covered Bihar, parts of Uttar Pradesh, etc,” he told the Hindustan Times.

The rain is expected to lower the temperature in Delhi. The Capital’s maximum temperature had crossed 40 degrees Celsius on Monday.

Watch: Heavy rain and waterlogging announce the arrival of the monsoon in Mumbai

The India Meteorological Department said that ahead of the onset of monsoon, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand are likely to witness thunderstorms.

The weather department added that a cyclonic circulation, that lay over the northwest Bay of Bengal, is likely to lead to the formation of a low-pressure area in the next 24 hours. It will move northwestwards across Odisha and cause heavy rainfall over most parts of East and Central India.

“Due to the strengthening of westerly winds along the west coast in association with low pressure area, widespread rainfall activity with heavy to very heavy falls likely to continue over coastal districts of Maharashtra during 10th to 15th June,” the weather department added.

North West India is also likely to witness rainfall between June 12 and June 14, the India Meteorological Department added.

Mumbai and several other parts of Maharashtra witnessed heavy rainfall on Wednesday and more is likely to follow. Fifteen National Disaster Response Force teams were deployed in the state in view of the weather conditions.