Southwest Monsoon Arrives in Kerala, Three Days Ahead of Its Normal Onset Time

The south-west monsoon has set in over Kerala on Sunday, three days ahead of its normal onset date of June 1, the weather office said.

The south-west monsoon is considered the lifeline of India’s agri-based economy. South-west monsoon has set in over Kerala on Sunday, May 29, against the normal date of onset of June 1, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.

Earlier, the IMD had forecast onset over Kerala on May 27 with help from remnants of Cyclone Asani that struck the Bay of Bengal a fortnight ago. The forecast had a model error of four days.

However, the influence of the remnant weather systems that lingered over the southern peninsula petered out.

Meanwhile, experts said that all conditions have been satisfied for declaration of onset of monsoon over Kerala:

Among these are:

i)The depth of westerly winds is extending upto 4.5km above sea level.

ii)The strength of the westerly winds have increased over southeast Arabian Sea in lower levels and is about 15-20kts (25-35kmph).

iii)Cloudiness over southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining areas of Kerala have increased.

iv)There has been widespread rainfall activity over Kerala during past 24-hours and out of 14 rainfall monitoring stations for declaring onset of monsoon over Kerala, 10 stations have received rainfall of 2.5mm or more.

With inputs from agencies

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