Winds have picked up speed in Thiruvananthapuram gusting to more than 30 km/hr this afternoon in signs that the monsoon flows are strengthening.
It’s drizzling in the capital city under dark patches of clouds even as the sun emerges once in a while to turn the weather muggier what with high humidity levels.
It has been raining for sometime in Kochi, 200 km to the north, but it is comparably less windy there. Thunderstorms have been forecast for both cities for the rest of the day.
Overall, conditions remain favourable for advance of monsoon into more parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the next three days.
Winds continue to be west-northwesterly in Thiruvananthapuram only because of the ‘pull’ to the north of what are originally monsoon westerlies.
Various weather models, including India Met department, expect this circulation to grow into a monsoon depression/cyclone.
India Met Department’s early projections tend to take the system some distance off Porbandar in Gujarat by June 12/13.
A series of predictions by US-based agencies has suggested that it may turn west-northwest from here and head towards Gulf of Oman.
They had initially projected the Somali coast in Africa as the likely landfall point.
In any case, the monsoon flows will peak in strength due to the ‘pull power’ of the system. They may cause the Bay of Bengal to play ball and help it conjure up a circulation there as well.
This system may head into Myanmar, but not before directing some helpful southeasterly monsoon winds from the Bay into east India.