Satellite pictures this morning shows both the West and East coasts engulfed by thick monsoon or raining clouds, with the some of the intense convections happening off Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.
The normal date of monsoon onset over Mumbai, to the North, is June 10, but it could happen early this year; in fact, any time from now, according to indications.
Aggressive phase
The emerging aggressive phase of the monsoon is already on show, with heavy cloud presence on the West Coast, right from Kanyakumari, the land's end, to into Mumbai.
Massive banks of clouds are present over the Arabian Sea, spreading hundreds of km into the nearby East-Central, Central, South-Central and South-East basins in that order.
A fair amount of convection (the process of cloud-building) is happening off the Thiruvananthapuram coast, and it has been raining steady in the city from last night.
A nowcast from the local Met office has said that thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds would affect Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam,Ernakulam and Thrissur districts.
Fishermen have been warned of strong winds mainly from westerly direction with speed reaching up to 55 km/hr along and off Kerala coast and over Lakshadweep until this afternoon.
Heavy rain forecast
A concurrent heavy rain warning said heavy rainfall (7- to 11 cm in 24 hours) is likely at one or two places in Kerala for three days with likely very heavy (12- to 20 cm in 24 hours) tomorrow.
The Mumbai Met Office said that heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely for the rest of today over North Konkan, South Konkan, South Madhya Maharashtra, Marathawada, East and West Vidarbha.
The districts covered in Konkan as a whole includes Palghar, Thane, Mumbai Suburban, Mumbai City, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudug, all along the coast.
Districts included under South Madhya Maharashtra are Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur, Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed and Parbhani. Those under Marathawada are Hingoli, Nanded, Latur and Osmanabad.
The monsoon has not yet reached Vidarbha, and what is being current forecast in terms of thundershowers, are in the nature of pre-monsoonal only.