Southwest monsoon sluggish over Andhra

Visakhapatnam: The Southwest monsoon, which set in over Andhra Pradesh two days in advance on June 2, has gone sluggish. There has been no rainfall in any part of the state in the last two days, said senior scientist of IMD Amaravati Dr S. Karunasagar on Saturday.

He said the monsoon covered the entire Rayalaseema and about 95 per cent of coastal Andhra Pradesh. It covered up to Vizianagaram district and only Alluri Sitarama Raju district and its surrounding areas need to be covered.

He said the monsoon was very active in the west coast and IMD even announced a red alert in some parts of Mumbai and Goa. “We need monsoon systems in the Bay of Bengal to rejuvenate the monsoon,’’ Karunasagar said.

The IMD in its monsoon outlook earlier said June and July would be sluggish and heavy rains were expected in August and September to make up the deficit rainfall. In all, the state might get more than normal rainfall, the IMD said.

Citing the case of Kerala, the private weather website Skymet said the cross-equatorial flow over the tropical Indian Ocean and South Arabian Sea remained weak. Accordingly, the westerly stream of monsoon along the Kerala-Karnataka coastline is not strong enough to speed up equitable monsoon bursts over the region.

Last year, Andhra Pradesh recorded a total of 454.6 mm rainfall between June 1 and September 30, which is 13 per cent deficient than the normal of 521.6 mm. In 2022, the state had recorded a total of 575.5 mm rainfall (over 10 per cent more than the normal of 521.6 mm).

Meanwhile, the temperature is shooting up in many parts of the state due to lack of rains. On Friday, the average temperature was 36 degrees Celsius.