Monsoon starts retreating from N-W as rains lash South

The South-West monsoon has started withdrawing from the country and exited west Rajasthan and Kutch on Tuesday, an India Met Department update said.

This is even as a remnant low-pressure area dumped heavy rain over north-east India and a renewed wet spell unfolded over parts of peninsula.

The rains in the South from a monsoon on retreat are being bankrolled by an intense typhoon-in-making in northwest Pacific, which is initially seen hunkering down towards southeast China.

The building storm is merely waiting for predecessor ‘Fung-Wong’ to finish formalities and sign off quietly into the East China Sea off Hangzhou and Shanghai in China.

The European Centre for Medium-Term Weather Forecasts indicates that the successor storm has already taken shape off Guam.

The US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre also has put out a cyclone (typhoon) formation warning.

The European Centre expects the system to intensify rapidly and become a very strong typhoon, achieving peak strength just off Taiwan and south-east China coasts by the weekend.

Both these coasts would come directly under the fury of the typhoon, which is then forecast to rebound towards South Korea and later to Japan.

It is around this time that the monsoon flows in the Arabian Sea and southwest Bay of Bengal get sufficiently churned up and converge into a circulation around peninsular tip of India and Sri Lanka.

The Met Department said earlier morning that a preparatory circulation has already formed over Lakshadweep-Maldives-Comorin area. It could descend to lower heights and move in east-southeast towards Sri Lanka and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal.

It would send in easterly winds across the peninsula in a pattern associated with the North-East monsoon and cause moderate to heavy showers over the south from the weekend.

Parts of the southern peninsula have already started receiving passing showers over the past couple of days from a deep trough extending from the low-pressure area over east India.

These rains will get better organised with the formation of the circulation over south peninsula and Sri Lanka from the weekend.

The Met Department has warned of heavy rainfall over coastal Karnataka, south interior Karnataka and Kerala on Wednesday. On Thursday, the rains would spread into Tamil Nadu even as heavy rain continues over coastal and south interior Karnataka and Kerala.

The Met has mounted the outlook for rains and thundershowers to continue to lash many parts of south India, in line with forecasts made earlier by international weather models.