The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday announced that the monsoon was very likely to set in over Kerala in the next 24 hours, a week after its normal onset date.
But in the North, at least 19 people lost their lives leaving 48 injured in duststorm and lightning in Uttar Pradesh, Relief Commissioner GS Priyadarshi said on Friday. Severe heatwave conditions are likely to prevail over Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, and Uttar Pradesh this weekend. The Northeast States will receive heavy rainfall for the next three-four days. Large parts of the country are also parched due to drought in 245 districts last year. According to the Central Water Commission, water storage in reservoirs of most States of west and south India has dipped to less than the average of last 10 years.
With southwest monsoon expected to make its landfall within next 24 hours, an orange alert has been issued in Kerala by the State Disaster Management Authority. Large parts of the country are parched because of below-normal pre-monsoon rainfall that ended in May with a 24 per cent deficit over the long period average (LPA). LPA is the average rainfall received during monsoon months in the 1951-2000 periods. People are resorting to special puja or ‘Mahayagya’ in different parts of the country for better monsoon.
The IMD in its bulletin said that an offshore trough was “very likely to develop around June 8, off Maharashtra coast to Kerala coast. In association with these favourable conditions, Southwest monsoon is very likely to set in over Kerala during next 48 hours”. The IMD bulletin also informed a low-pressure area was very likely to form off the Kerala-Karnataka coast around June 9, which would gradually move north-northwestwards and intensify further. The Climate Prediction Centre (CPC) of the US National Weather Service attributes the delay to anomalous easterly winds (due to pre-monsoon activity) in the lower levels. These winds need to be south-westerly to precipitate the onset of monsoon.
According to the US agency, model guidance suggests a weakening of the anomalous easterlies and the return to a normal monsoonal flow pattern towards the end of the week from June 12-18.
The monsoon is delayed by a week, as it usually arrives in the State on June 1. The delay will also impact the arrival of the monsoon in other parts of south and central India. The delay has raised anxiety among farmers, who depend heavily on rains for irrigating their fields. The delay in monsoon, coupled with uneven distribution during the four months of the rainy season, can adversely impact summer crops, especially paddy, pulses and oilseeds.
Meanwhile, people in different parts of the country are resorting to off-beat methods to propitiate rain gods. A mahayagya is being performed in Belwan village of Khizirsarai Block in Bihar for better monsoon. The mahayagya will continue for 10 days. In Bengaluru, special pooja was performed at Someshwara temple in Halasuru to please the rain God.
The orange alert indicates very heavy rainfall in Kollam and Alappuzha districts for June 9 and in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts for June 10 in Kerala. According to the IMD, squally weather is predicted along and off the Kerala coast and Southwest Arabian Sea. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea.