Southwest monsoon arrives in Kerala three days ahead of schedule

The southwest monsoon has set in over Kerala on Sunday (May 29), three days before its scheduled date of June 1, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The monsoons that had advanced into Kerala and some parts of Tamil Nadu, heralds the beginning of the four-month rainy season highly critical for India’s farm-based economy.

This is the fourth time since 2005, the Kerala monsoon arrived earlier than June 1. The monsoon landed earlier than usual in 2010 (May 31), 2017 (May 30) and 2018 (May 29) and again in 2006 (May 26).

The IMD officially declared the arrival of the south-west monsoon after being satisfied with the conditions such as the depth and strength of westerly winds, the cloudiness over south-east Arabian Sea and adjoining areas of Kerala. Also, Kerala has been receiving rainfall since Saturday and 10 out of the 14 weather monitoring stations in the state have received more than 2.5 mm rains, thus fulfilling the criteria for the onset of monsoon, said the IMD.

Also read: Monsoons in India normal this year; 99% rainfall expected

Weather scientists had earlier attributed the early onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala to the influence of the remnants of cyclone Asani, which triggered the cross-equatorial flow, a key factor for the seasonal rains. At that time, IMD had forecast onset over Kerala on May 27.

The early arrival of the southwest monsoon is expected at a time when parts of north-west India have been experiencing extremely high maximum temperatures.

However, while the monsoon has advanced over Kerala and parts of Tamil Nadu, the Bay of Bengal arm of the weather system was sluggish, as it continued to linger just above the Andaman islands. IMD has suggested that the progress of the monsoon over Karnataka, Goa and entire north-east India could be slow.

Pre-Monsoon rainfall

All southern states/UTs have received above-normal rainfall since March to May 28: Karnataka (136 per cent), Lakshadweep (112 per cent), Kerala (98 per cent), Puducherry (87 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (34 per cent).

Only Telangana (minus 28 per cent) was rain deficient during the pre-monsoon season.