Monsoon arrives in Andamans; likely to reach coastal Karnataka in two weeks

Kochi, May 15: The Southwest monsoon has hit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Sunday, three days ahead of schedule. “The Southwest monsoon has advanced into some parts of southeast Bay of Bengal, Nicobar Islands, entire south Andaman Sea and parts of north Andaman Sea on Sunday,” the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.

The announcement was made on account of the strengthening and deepening of south westerly winds, persistent cloudiness and rainfall, which is being seen over the islands, the Met agency stated. The early arrival of rain in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands does not mean an early arrival of monsoon on the Kerala coast, where the normal onset of rain is around June 1. Meteorologists said it would be too early to predict whether the monsoon would reach the Malabar coast ahead of its time.

“It takes about 13-14 days for the monsoon to reach Kerala from south Andaman. The flows on the Arabian side are normal at the moment. We can’t say anything about the onset in Kerala now,” IMD Director General K J Ramesh said. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are likely to witness heavy to very heavy rainfall over the next two days, during which the sea is likely to be rough.

Fishermen have been advised not to venture out in the next 48 hours. Last week, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research had forecast that the Southwest monsoon would hit the Eastern Ghats between June 14 and June 22. They made the claims on the basis of their own forecast model for the Indian summer monsoon.

Private weather forecaster Skymet said monsoon was likely to hit Kerala on June 1 with an error of one to two days. Last month, the IMD predicted a normal Southwest monsoon in 2017. Within a couple of days after entering Kerala, monsoon rains will reach coastal Karnataka too.