The South-West monsoon is expected to make an onset over the Kerala coast anytime soon after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) assessed conditions as turning favourable. on Wednesday.
The westerly winds are persisting and have risen to the required heights in the atmosphere. Cloudiness is enhanced over the southeast Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep, as well as along the Kerala coast.
Advance in the Bay of Bengal too
These conditions will enable the monsoon to advance into some more parts of the South Arabian Sea, including the entire Lakshadweep area, the Maldives, and the Comorin area.
Simultaneously, its Bay of Bengal arm will cover more parts of the South-West and Central Bay of Bengal and some more parts of the North-East Bay, apart from entering parts of the North-Eastern States.
- Also read: IMD defers call on monsoon onset over Kerala
Clouds off Kerala coast
On Wednesday evening, dense clouds hovered above Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram along the Kerala coast, while some were spotted at a distance from Mangaluru in coastal Karnataka. Moderate to heavy rain or thundershowers were reported from these areas through the day.
Leading weather watchers assessed that monsoon flows may be breaking free of very severe cyclone Biparjoy over the East-Central and adjoining South-East Arabian Sea, and rip open an independent track to facilitate the onset over Kerala.
Very severe cyclone Biparjoy
Biparjoy was located about 850 km west-southwest of Goa, 950 km south-west of Mumbai, 1,010 km south-southwest of Porbandar, and 1,310 km south of Karachi on Wednesday afternoon.
The cyclone is expected to move nearly northward until Thursday morning and then to the north-northwest (away from India’s west coast) during the subsequent three days.
Some forecast agencies suspected the system may be dragged back north-northeast towards south-east Pakistan (Karachi) and adjoining North Gujarat or south-west Rajasthan in due course.