Cyclone ‘Nanauk’ aids onset of monsoon in N-E

Tropical Cyclone ‘Nanauk’ has managed to pull up monsoon to Ratnagiri on the West Coast on a day it should normally have reached Mumbai further up north.

The northern limit of the monsoon linked Ratnagiri with Agumbe, Madikeri, Chennai and Cooch Behar and Gangtok in the North-East. In this fashion, the monsoon arrived with a delay of 10 days.

Tryst with east With the monsoon play mostly centred on ‘Nanauk,’ the weather system seems to have lost its sting over land. The crucial enabling feature of the wind shear zone higher in the atmosphere lay in tatters.

The offshore trough remained a shadow of its true self. During active monsoon conditions, it presents itself as a well-defined and elongated area of lower pressure lying within earshot off the west coast.

But it remained a feeble formation on Wednesday, the Met said, and would continue to stay as such on Thursday as well.

This trough is expected to come back to life with the next wave of reinvigorated monsoon flows coinciding with the weakening of Cyclone Nanauk.

Cloudy in Mumbai Mumbai remained partly cloudy for most of the day with gusts of southerly winds fanned in by Nanauk stationed 700 km west-southwest out into the sea.

Only, the gusts did not have sufficient moisture to set off monsoon rain. The rains may arrive here part of the fresh monsoon ‘pulse’ being generated post Nanauk’s weakening.

In fact, the fresh pulse may envelop the whole of the southern half of the country. It will extend a tongue along the east coast and whip-lash east and North-East India with rain and thundershowers.

For the week beginning Wednesday, the US Climate Prediction Centre sees wet spell centred over the East Coast covering Odisha, Seemandhra and south coastal Andhra Pradesh adjoining Chennai.

Rain spread Rain deficit is indicated for the west coast and adjoining west Maharashtra; entire Madhya Pradesh; Chhattisgarh; parts of west Bihar and west Uttar Pradesh. The following week (June 18-24) may see the west coast (except south Kerala) witness normal rain. Excess rain is indicated for Himalayan foothills of Bihar and adjoining Nepal; Odisha and Seemandhra coasts; and parts of North-East India.

The eastern half of the country may variously come under moderate to heavy to very heavy rainfall during the week. Heavy rain is indicated for Bihar, Jharkhand and interior Odisha. It will be very heavy over West Bengal, coastal Odisha and adjoining coastal West Bengal.