Pre-monsoon showers hit Kerala ahead of Southwest Monsoon. (File)
Pre-monsoon showers arrived in Kerala on Friday even as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) announced advanced Southwest monsoons into some parts of Southeast Bay of Bengal, South Andaman Sea and the Nicobar Islands. Rainfall was observed at most places over Kerala, Assam and Meghalaya and isolated places of Andaman and Nicobar island on Friday.
According to Skymet weather, monsoon will take about 3-4 days from the current position to hit Kerala which means it would be earlier than the official date of June 1, with moderate to heavy rainfall likely at many places.
The Northern Limit of Monsoon (NLM) is currently passing through latitude 5°N and longitude 80°E, 8°N and 87°E, Car Nicobar and 11°N and 99°E. The conditions for the advancement of the NLM are favourable over some more parts of South Arabian Sea, Comorin Maldives areas, some more parts of South Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea and Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the next 24-48 hours.
Meanwhile, the extremely severe cyclonic storm ‘Mekunu’ over the Westcentral Arabian Sea moved further northnorthwestwards and was barrelling through the Arabian Sea on Friday as it headed for the South Oman-Southeast Yemen coasts.