Headlines
It's monsoon time again in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, June 5
The anxious wait
for the onset of the southwest monsoon is finally over as a weather
bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department on Friday
afternoon declared that it had set in.
"Southwest monsoon has set in over Kerala today against the normal date of June 1," the weather bulletin said.
"It
has further advanced into entire south Arabian Sea, some more parts of
central Arabian Sea, entire Lakshadweep area and Kerala, some parts of
coastal and south interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, remaining parts of
southeast Bay of Bengal and some parts of central and northeast Bay of
Bengal," it said.
It further added that the conditions were
favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts
of central Arabian Sea, Karnataka, remaining parts of Tamil Nadu, some
parts of Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra Pradesh, some more parts of
central and north Bay of Bengal and southern parts of northeastern
states during the next 48 hours.
The onset's announcement was a
mere formality, as on Friday morning many parts of Kerala received heavy
rains, which started last night.
To declare that that the
monsoons have arrived in Kerala the data recorded at the 14 weather
stations located at Lakshadweep, Kerala and in Mangalore was being
closely monitored.
The officials monitor the rains starting May
10. If 60 percent of the stations or more record 2.5 mm of rain for two
continuous days, it satisfies the criterion that monsoon has arrived.
Another
yardstick that the IMD uses is the strength of the wind. Cloud
movements are also a key indicator for the weathermen when it comes to
announcing the monsoon.
The IMD report shows that in the past one
decade the operational forecasts were correct. But this time it failed
as the forecast date was May 30, with a model error of plus or minus
four days.
And now that the southwest monsoon has set in, it
advances northwards, usually in surges, and covers the entire country
around July 15.