The south-west monsoon, which accounts for four-fifths of the country’s annual rains, reached Kerala yesterday one week before of its normal date, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
“The monsoon has hit Kerala coast,” the spokesman of IMD, Mr BP Yadav, said, adding that it was expected to mansoon-kerala-rainadvance further in the next few days in Kerala and the northeastern parts of the country.
The usual date for the four-month monsoon season is first of June. The early onset would improve the prospects for early planting of kharif crops.
In its forecast for the next 48 hours under current conditions, the IMD said the monsoon is likely to further advance over some more parts of central and north Bay of Bengal, northeastern states and Gangetic West Bengal. The IMD is keeping a close watch on the low-pressure area currently lying over east-central Bay of Bengal that is expected to intensify into a cyclone. In such a case, the monsoon may play a disappearing act over peninsular India as the cyclone would suck away moisture from over the region and weaken the monsoon system.