Overcast skies over the monsoon gateway opening into a thunderstorm within half an hour of day-break.

A loud clap of thunder to kick off proceedings, as if telling the uninitiated this is not the monsoon yet.

The day started off with a thunderstorm in Thiruvananthapuram early this morning, and not merely a forecast as has been the case on two days after the traditional monsoon onset date of June 1.

Winds this morning are northerly to west-northwesterly, not quite aligning to the westerly to the southwesterly associated with the monsoonal flows.

The mercury hovers in the late 20s at 7.30 am, humidity in the late 70 deg-Celsius mark (lower compared to yesterday morning), and winds clocking at 14- to 18 km/hr.

Onset conditions require that winds blow predominantly in the westerly to southwesterly direction at 27- to 37 km/hr.

This still appears to be a couple of days away, as is corroborated by India Met Department’s outlook posted late last night.

The Met said that the monsoon flows have entered the Maldives and the adjoining Comorin region to the east-northeast by last night.

Sri Lanka in the neighbourhood does not appear to have declared the onset, but has been receiving heavy rain over parts of the island nation. Sri Lanka is the penultimate stop for the monsoon before it hits Kerala.

The onset window assumes June 5 as the media date for Kerala, but indications are that the flows may not hit the high octaves until the next day.

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