It is now increasingly becoming clear that the monsoon may not reach the Kerala coast on June 1.
The northern limit of southwest monsoon continued to be stuck along the Maldives-Colombo alignment for a third day on Tuesday.
This is even as reports suggested that the seasonal rains may have fully covered the Maldives and broken over Sri Lanka too.
This morning, India Meteorological Department (IMD) merely retained the outlook that conditions are favourable for advance of monsoon into more parts of Maldives and Comorin areas, south and central Bay of Bengal and the rest of Andaman Sea.
The Sri Lankan media yesterday quoted the local Met Department as warning of lightning and strong winds signalled the onset of the monsoon along the coast of the island nation.
Wind speeds measured up to between 40 to 50 km/h. These may increase up to 60 to 70 km/h at times in the southwestern, southern, southeastern coasts and the Gulf of Mannar.
The Met Department also requested fishermen in the southern and eastern seas to exercise caution as the wind speed could scale up even further out into the sea.