The monsoon may have been in circulation for only three days after a delayed onset but it has already delivered rain equivalent to, if not more than what the first 10 days of June normally generate.
As on Friday, the seasonal rains have covered Kerala, Tamil Nadu, most parts of Karnataka, parts of Rayalaseema and South Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
It has delivered normal rain in Kerala and South interior Karnataka but dumped excess rain over Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema, and coastal Andhra Pradesh.
Conditions are favourable for its progress mainly over the peninsular seas over the next three to four days, an India Met Department update said.
Meanwhile, satellite pictures on Friday noon suggested that the West coast was bracing for a big monsoon push as banks of clouds hung off the Goa-Mangaluru coast in the North and Kochi-to-Nagercoil in the South.
The Met has forecast heavy to very heavy rain at a few places over coastal Karnataka, South interior Karnataka, Konkan-Goa, and Kerala later today.
Cloud coverage
Clouds had penetrated into the interior of the peninsula and were hovering above Panjim, Belgavi, Hubli and Bellari in Karnataka; Kolhapur, Vijayapura, Solapur, Satara, Beed, Pune, and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra; and Anantapur, Kadapa, Vijayawada, Guntur, Bhimavaram and Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh.
The US Climate Prediction Centre sees the rain advancing across the peninsula during the week ending June 15.
Heavy to very rain has been forecast by the US agency for Konkan-Goa and the northeastern states along with parts of Gangetic West Bengal during this phase.
Flare-up seen
The week that follows (June 16 to 22) would once again witness a monsoon flare-up over coastal Karnataka, followed by Konkan-Mumbai, according to extended forecasts by the agency.
An expansive run of the monsoon during the week would push rains into Central and East India (Central and East Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar) and even North-West India (Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and North Rajasthan).
Rains are, however, forecast to be normal over Bihar, Jharkhand and parts of Chhattisgarh during this phase. The rest of the areas mentioned above should see above normal rains.