The monsoon is declared to have arrived at a place when a large area receives frequent and widespread rain. Calcutta might have been receiving frequent rain over the past few days but it was pre-monsoon rain, a weather scientist said. The showers on Tuesday had shown the first signs of a shift from thunderstorms to sustained rainfall that the monsoon is associated with. Tuesday’s rainfall was accompanied by lightning but there were no gusts of wind, typical of squalls and thunderstorms of April and May.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Kannur and Kasaragod may experience extremely heavy rains on Tuesday
- IMD has issued orange alert for Kozhikode, Malappuram and Wayanad
- Administration has declared a holiday for schools in Kannur, Kasargod and Malappuram
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) scientists, there is a 43% deficiency in monsoon rainfall all over the country as of Monday. They further added, while this is partly because the monsoon arrived after a delay of seven days, on June 8, severe cyclonic storm Vayu that started developing on June 11 disturbed the monsoon flow and affected its normal advancement.
Monsoon is expected to advance further up north as Cyclone Vayu loses intensity paving the way for the wind system to move towards the Arabian Sea, the weatherman said on Sunday. By now, monsoon should have reached central India, including parts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat, but it is yet to reach Maharashtra.
According to the India Meteorological Department, it still remains over Mangalore, Mysore, Cuddalore over the southern peninsula and Passighat, Agartala in the northeast. The western coast – from Maharashtra to Gujarat – has been receiving rainfall due to the cyclone. Only coastal Karnataka and Kerala have received rains due to monsoon.
Vayu is expected to cross the Gujarat coast on Monday evening as a depression. This will pave the way for monsoon winds to move up towards the Arabian Sea. Monsoon made an onset over Kerala on June 8, nearly a week after its usual onset date.
Devendra Pradhan, additional director general, IMD said, “The progress of monsoon was halted due to Cyclone Vayu. As its intensity decreases, we expect monsoon to progress in the next 2-3 days.”
Mahesh Palawat, vice-president (meteorology and climate change), Skymet, a private weather forecaster said, “This kind of delay is unusual. Monsoon onset is often delayed but after that, it progresses. This year there is a delay in both onset and stalling of monsoon. It’s a combined effect of El Nino and Vayu.”
In its monsoon bulletin, IMD said conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of the southwest monsoon to more parts of central Arabian Sea, Karnataka and remaining parts of Tamil Nadu. It is expected to cover more parts of central, north and south Bay, northeast India, north Bengal and Sikkim in 1-2 days.
