Thiruvananthapuram: Finally, five days after it was expected, the southwest monsoon has touched down on Kerala coast on Thursday. Though there were scattered to heavy rainfall during the last 48 hours, the Indian Meteorological Department had officially announced June 5 as the onset of the monsoon.The heaviest rainfall of the day measuring 8 cm has been recorded in Kudlu of Kasargod.
Maximum temperature fell markedly in Kannur district, fell appreciably in Malappuram district, fell in Kottayam, Kozhikode, Kollam and Thrissur districts, was appreciably above normal in Kozhikode and Palakkad districts, was above normal in Alappuzha district and changed little in the remaining districts. Palakkad recorded the highest maximum temperature of 34 degree celsius.
The IMD had earlier predicted the onset on May 30 but later revised it to June 5. It had also forecast a relatively weak monsoon as a consequence of the El Nino effect. However, the onset has been encouragingly healthy.
"The rainfall over Kerala has been fairly widespread to widespread for the last 48 hours," an IMD statement said.
Out of the 14 rainfall monitoring stations for Monsoon onset over the state, more than 70 percent of stations have reported rainfall higher than 2.5 mm for last consecutive two days (June 4 and 5). Westerly, west-southwesterly winds of 40-50 kms per hour were observed up to 4.5 kms above mean sea level.
"This suggests that there could be fairly heavy winds from the westerly direction along and off the Kerala coast during the next 24 hours," said Dr K Santhosh, the directo9r of the IMD Kerala Centre.
The IMD has also stated that conditions were favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, Karnataka, some parts of Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra Pradesh, and some more parts of central and north Bay of Bengal and southern parts of northeastern states during next 48 hours.
