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Vinson Kurian

The good tidings may not last for long since the winds have started losing speed in the southern parts of the State from Friday morning and were blowing wayward.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 20

THE moisture-laden southwesterlies blowing in from across the Arabian Sea poured it down on Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and the strategically important Idukki districts late on Thursday evening, 10 days after the monsoon made a delayed onset in the State.

But the good tidings may not last for long since, according to the Met Office here, the winds have suddenly started losing speed in the southern parts of the State from Friday morning and were blowing wayward. Thiruvananthapuram city had a largely uneventful day, alternating between the sunny bright and the occasionally drenched. But, overall, according to Met Office, monsoon would continue to be active in the State with "uniformly widespread rain," give or take a stray district or two - or Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, as they have more or less proved, a full week and more into the season this year.

Late on Thursday evening, however, Thiruvananthapuram recorded three cm of rain in a sudden surge. Kollam recorded two cm, while Idukki (four cm) and the neighbouring Munnar and Thodupuzha (three cm) received moderate rain. The Director of the Met Office, Mr M. D. Ramachandran, could not confirm whether the catchment areas of the Idukki hydroelectric project also fell under the rain-fed areas on Thursday. The monsoon activity continued to be intense in the northern districts with rains falling in the 8cm-13 cm range.

However, according to sources in the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), catchment areas of major hydroelectric projects received some rain on Friday with Idamalayar (4 cm) topping the list. Other chief amounts of rainfall were Idukki (3.7 cm), Lower Periyar (3.1 cm) and Sabarigiri (one cm). Catchment areas of these projects recorded inflows enough to produce 7.75 million units of electricity.

The daily consumption requirement was 29.69 million units, of which the hydroelectric projects could contribute just 4.5 million units. The dependence on high-cost thermal power, sourced from within the State and outside, continued to be pretty high.

Unusual onset pattern: According to Prof Sulochana Gadgil of the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, the monsoon onset has been somewhat unusual this year, in that there was hardly any convection (organised deep clouds) over the Bay of Bengal.

Generally, during onset, a cloud band stretches from the Arabian Sea to the Bay and moves northward. Because the band was only on the Arabian Sea this time round, mainly the coastal and ghat regions got rain during the onset. "But, as of now, there's an active system over the Bay, which is conducive to intensification of the monsoon," she informed Business Line.

Asked how she would explain the lack of rains in the southern districts, Prof Gadgil said the cloud band associated with the onset had stretched onto land only over the northern part of Kerala and then moved northward, leaving the southern part more or less dry.

"But now this condition has more or less been rectified judging by the behaviour of the system over Kerala in the last two days. This should make way for the rains", she added.

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