The southwest monsoon on Saturday, August 30, inched past the season’s normal performance for Kerala, with the State now having received an area-weighted rainfall of 1,815.2 mm against the long-period average of 1,786.6 mm from June 1.
The rainfall received is nearly two per cent more than the normal at this stage of the season.
The ongoing active spell of the monsoon, which began on August 28, is forecast to last till September 1 in the State.
The meteorology centre, in its bulletin on Saturday, said ‘isolated’ places in the State would receive very heavy rainfall (exceeding 13 cm) till September 1. A few other places would receive heavy rainfall (exceeding 7 cm) till then.
The India Meteorological Centre uses the term ‘isolated’ to mean up to 25 per cent of the rain gauge stations distributed across the State and ‘few’ to mean 26 to 50 per cent of the rain gauge stations.
Low pressure system The low pressure system that took shape over the Bay of Bengal off the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coast on August 28 to ignite the current bout of rainfall in Kerala lay more or less over the same area on Saturday, intensified into a ‘well marked low pressure.’
The churning caused by this system has speeded up the flow of moisture laden winds from the Arabian Sea across the State.
A rain-facilitating offshore atmospheric trough, though feeble, too was in position along the west coast on Saturday, stretching from the south Maharashtra coast to the Kerala coast.
In a warning to fishermen, the meteorology centre said strong onshore winds from westerly direction, with speed occasionally reaching 45 to 55 km per hour, were likely along and off the State’s coast.
The outlook for four days after September 1 favours a decrease in the intensity of the rainfall.
