Stage set for monsoon’s advance, says Indian Meteorological Department

Hyderabad: With the Cyclone Ashobaa weakening in the Arabian Sea, conditions have become favourable for the Southwest Monsoon’s advance, said the IMD officials on Friday. While the monsoon has already advanced into Rayalaseema and a few parts of Coastal AP, it is yet to reach TS.

“Currently, almost 50 per cent of the Met stations in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra are reporting light to moderate rainfall,” Y.K. Reddy, the director-in-charge, Met department, Hyderabad, said.

It will take another five days for the monsoon to cover both AP and Telangana state completely, Mr Reddy said.

Enkatagiri Kota of Chittoor recorded the maximum rainfall of 6 cm on Friday. Kuppam mandal of Chittoor and Settur of Anantapur recorded 2 cm rainfall each.

In Coastal AP, Kalingapatnam of Srikakulam recorded 4 cm rainfall, while Therlam and Kurupam mandals of Vizianagaram recorded 3 cm each.

Addanki of Prakasam and Avanigada and Nandigama mandals of Krishna district also got 3 cm rain.

Telangana too received light to moderate showers in isolated areas. In Dornakal mandal of Warangal, 5 cm rain was recorded while Kusumanchi mandal of Khammam for 4 cm rain, as did Balkonda of Nizamabad.

However, the showers in Telangana are still pre-monsoon showers, Mr Reddy said. Meanwhile, as per IMD prediction, moderate to rather heavy rain or thundershowers would occur at a few places in Rayalaseema, Coastal AP and Telangana too.

The highest maximum temperature, 43ºC, was recorded at Bapatla and Machilipatnam. In Telangana, the highest maximum temperature of 42ºC was recorded at Ramagundam.