The anticipated fresh 'pulse' of the monsoon may have started already impacting parts of South Kerala with Thiruvananthapuram witnessing persistent overnight rains.
Satellite pictures this morning show rain clouds spilling over from the South-East Arabian Sea into the Kerala coast right from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram to Kanyakumari in adjoining Tamil Nadu.
Thunderstorm warning
Active thunderheads rear their heads to the seas to the South-West of Thiruvananthapuram and to the West of Kanyakumari at 8.30 am.
The Thiruvananthapuram Met Office has warned of possibility of thunderstorms accompanied by gusty winds in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Thrissur, Palakakd and Malappuram districts.
Similarly, violent weather in the form of thunderstorm is visible over Bellary in Karnataka, which overflying aircraft took special care to avoid while operating on multiple routes.
These included both domestic and international flights, including IndiGo (Bengaluru-Ranchi); Indigo (Chennai-Ahmedabad); Emirates (Dubai-Singapore); Emirates (Dubai-Chennai); IndiGo (Bengaluru-Dubai); British Airways (Bengaluru-London); and Emirates (Dubai-Singapore).
Aircraft stay clear
Other flight paths lain with thunderstorms which passing aircraft steered clear were situated above the North-Eastern States of India as well as neighbouring Bangladesh.
India Met Department (IMD) has already declared that the monsoon has set in over parts of the North-Eastern States. Conditions are favourable for its advance into more areas in the region.
Similarly, fresh churn is developing to the other end of the Bay of Bengal (the South-West basin) which too prompted the aircraft to navigate these skies with caution.
This morning, among the flights shifting their flight path suitably over the North-East Bay, adjoining Bangladesh and the North-Eastern States of India included, Qatar Airways (Bangkok-Doha) over the Bay; China Southern (Guangzhou-Delhi) over the North-Eastern States; Emirates Cargo (Shanghai-Mumbai) over Chittagong, Bangladesh; and Emirates (Dubai-Singapore) over South-West Bay, off Chennai.