Monsoon to hit Kerala in 3 days

Kochi: The weatherman has predicted that the Southwest Monsoon will hit Kerala in about three days and the rains being witnessed by the state now are part of the transition from pre-monsoon to monsoon.

The delay in the arrival of the monsoon is on account of the Roanu cyclone that passed through the Bay of Bengal from the Chennai coast to Kolkata coast before dissipating by the end of May.

“The accumulated moisture in the atmosphere was consumed by the cyclone leading to rainfall at that time. It is now taking time to build up sufficient moisture in the atmosphere and thick dark cloud formation over Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and equatorial Indian Ocean for the onset of monsoon,” said Dr M.G. Manoj, research scientist with the Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research (ACARR) of Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) here.

He said that currently only the Kerala coast is witnessing rainfall and there is only cloud band formation in the coastal region, because of which the rain is occurring in the area. “This rain is accompanied sometimes with lightning and thunder while in the case of monsoon rain, it will have no such phenomenon and will be incessant rain,” Dr Manoj said.

He said that the monsoon had arrived two weeks ago in the Andaman region and because of the pre-monsoon rain phenomenon, it is not intensifying and advancing. “We expect the onset of monsoon rains in about three days,” he added.