The monsoon continues to be in a weak phase, compounded by the abrupt development of a tropical storm into a super typhoon in the North-West Pacific.

Tropical storm Noru has now become a super typhoon and weather agencies predict that it may be eyeing the southern coast of Japan for landfall.

Meanwhile, a second tropical storm named Haitang, located off Taiwan, has weakened into a tropical depression and may fade out after crossing the south-west coast of China.

The Pacific storms have had a pronounced influence over the Indian monsoon, which weakened after the flows over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal were diverted into them.

Signs of the weak phase of the monsoon were also written large over the landscape as the rainfall has since been confined to the fringes in the South-East, East and North-West India.

Satellite pictures this morning show clouds hovering over the Puducherry-Kalpakkam-Kelambakkarm-Chennai stretch over Tamil Nadu; Nellore-Kadapa-Proddaur-Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh; Jaipur-Bikaner in Rajasthan; off Jalandhar in Punjab; and into Lahore across the border in Pakistan.

When the monsoon weakens, rainfall is known to retreat into the Himalayan foothills, North-East and East India, and along the East Coast of India.

There is no forecast suggesting any build-up of organised monsoon rainfall over any part of the country, except in these areas. The southern peninsula is in deficit even as the season enters the second half.

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