NEW DELHI: There is some good news and at the same time some bad ones on the monsoon front. After drenching the west coast profusely, the southwest monsoon is now set to move over to the east coast. But, it is likely to be on for only three days. There are indications that the monsoon activity for the country as a whole could go into a weak phase beginning June 8 or 9.

Weathermen at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast on Sunday predicted that there could be widespread rainfall over West Bengal, Orissa and north coastal Andhra Pradesh beginning Monday.

Rainfall was expected over the east coast following the formation of a low pressure area over the northern part of the Bay of Bengal. The bout of rainfall would, however, be brief, lasting not more than three days.

Speaking to The Hindu, the spokesperson of the Centre, Akhilesh Gupta, said there were strong indications of formation of a low pressure area over north Bay of Bengal. But, models also showed that the system may either weaken or move eastwards towards the Myanmar coast after three days.

The net result is that while widespread rains are expected to begin over West Bengal, Orissa and north coastal Andhra Pradesh from Monday, they are expected to remain mainly confined to the coastal areas and be on for about three days only.

As regards the activity over the west coast, he said the monsoon current from the Arabian Sea is steadily weakening. The core wind speed, which was about 80 to 100 km an hour just a few days ago, has now come down to 30 km an hour.

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