The southwest monsoon is expected to hit the Kerala coast by June 4, three days after its normal onset date, the MET department said on Sunday.
D.S. Pai, lead monsoon forecaster of the Indian Meteorological Department, said conditions were still not favourable for the progress of the monsoon and there would be a delay. The IMD, in its preliminary forecast, had said that the monsoon would hit the Kerala coast on May 30. By May 21, the southwest monsoon advanced over the Bay of Bengal touching southern parts of Sri Lanka.
Anticyclone
From then, the monsoon stagnated for a week. The progress has been sluggish because of anticyclone in the Arabian Sea. “Because of the anticyclone, the monsoon is also not getting strength. We are expecting the monsoon to hit the coast by June 4,” Mr. Pai said. Southwest monsoon generally defies predictions. This year, the monsoon current lost strength after reaching Hambantota in Sri Lanka. The northern limit of monsoon (NLM) remained stagnant there for over a week. “As of now, Kerala is receiving only patchy rains. We can expect monsoon to set in over Kerala only after June 3,” said Skymet, a private forecasting agency.
— PTI
