Relief from Heat | Monsoon hits Kerala on Tuesday

Thiruvananthapuram: The southwest monsoon broke over Kerala on Tuesday, signalling the arrival of monsoon over the Indian subcontinent.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) announced, on Monday evening, that with good rains lashing Kerala, the present meteorological conditions indicate that conditions are favourable for onset of southwest monsoon over the state on Tuesday.

Simultaneously, the onset is also likely over Lakshadweep, coastal Karnataka, some parts of Tamil Nadu and most parts of northeastern states in the next 24 hours, said the IMD officials.

According to the IMD's Delhi office, the earlier prediction for Kerala was June 5 as genreally monsoon strikes.

A senior official M Mahapatra stated, “The normal monsoon onset over Kerala is June 1 and since 2005, the IMD started to issue operational forecasts for the date. The forecasts of the monsoon onset issued during the past 12 years (2005-2016) were proved to be correct every year except 2015.”

The IMD also predicted rough to very-rough sea conditions along Andaman Islands and along the West Begal coast on Tuesday.

As per IMD, in past 24 hours, rainfall had occurred at most places over Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, east Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands; at many places over Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh; at a few places over Jammu and Kashmir, Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Gangetic West Bengal and Sikkim, Assam and Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, coastal Karnataka and at isolated places over north Rajasthan, north Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, south interior Karnataka and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

However, no significant change in maximum temperatures over the country are likely during next 2­3 days, IMD said.

Also Read: Monsoon arrives three days early in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

"Between June 3 to June 5, rain and thundershowers are very likely at many places over Kerala, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and northeastern states; at a few places

over east India and east Madhya Pradesh; at isolated places over rest of the country outside west India," it said.

About the national capital and regions around it, IMD predicts scattered rains till Friday, June 2.

"For Delhi, there would be on and off pre-monsoon showers. By the end of June, the monsoon would formally reach Delhi and Haryana according to the current weather pattern," it said.