India Met Department (IMD) has upgraded its outlook for the South Peninsula for next four days to fairly widespread to widespread rain with isolated heavy falls, thunderstorms and lightning as the North-East monsoon draws nearer.

In fact, the withdrawal line of the incumbent South-West monsoon delved into South India on Tuesday passing through Tuni, Hanamkonda, Bidar, Solapur and Ratnagiri across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra. 

Build-up continues

The IMD said that conditions are becoming favourable for further withdrawal of the monsoon from some more parts of South India, remaining parts of West India and some more parts of central Arabian Sea during by tomorrow (Wednesday).

Thereafter, the 2019 South-West monsoon is expected to exit the remaining parts of the country after delivering a bountiful season even as the North-East monsoon rains would commence over South-East India during the two days that follow. In fact, assorted build-up continued during the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning with heavy rainfall being reported from isolated places over the familar terrain of Kerala Tamil Nadu.

Centres recording moderate to heavy rain (in cm) Kochi-8; Tondi and Tuticorin-7 each; Kanniyakumari, Alapuzha and Thrissur-4 each; Coonoor-3; Thiruvanathapuram, Puducherry, Bapatla and Car Nicobar-2 each. The stand-out atmospheric feature with a bearing on the regional weather on Tuesday was a trough, an elongated area of low pressure, linking the South Sri Lanka coast with the East-Central Arabian Sea off North Kerala coast, topped up briefly by a cyclonic circulation.

Flights take cover

At 2.45 pm on Saturday, a cluster of thunderstorms hovered to the North and North-East of Agatti in Lakshadweep in the South-East Arabian Sea, and another cluster over Madurai-Tirunleveli-Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu. At least four international flights - Dubai-Colombo, Dubai-Auckland, Dubai-Sydney (Emirates) as well as Abu Dhabi-Sydney (Etihad) - were seen navigating carefully through the thunderheads over Lakshadweep at 2.45 pm.  A swarm of less intense thunderstorms stood guard over the Kadapa airport, the Tirupati airport and the Chennai International airport as the larger Bay of Bengal and the Tamil Nadu braced to receive the North-East monsoon.

A forecast outlook for today (Tuesday) as well as tomorrow (Wedesday) said that heavy rainfall is likely at isolated places over Coastal Andhra Pradesh, South Interior Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Depression looming?

An extended forecast for Sunday to Tuesday said that fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy falls may lash South India and Maharashtra. According to wind-profile projections of the IMD, the North-East monsoon would have been entrenched after May 20 helped in no small measure by a weather system (low-pressure area or depression) developing in the Arabian Sea.

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It will help pull the easterly to north-easterly monsoon flows from Bay of Bengal across the South Peninsula into the Arabian Sea, pouring down the moisture mopped up from the Bay as rain over Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. The US National Centres for Environmental Prediction agrees that the next fortnight ending October 30 would see rains spread out over the Interior Peninsula as well along both the West Coast and the East Coast.

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The IMD indicates the possibility of low-pressure area developing from a buzz off the Kerala coast, gradually intensifying into being well-marked or even a depression travelling North-North-East towards the Mumbai-South Gujarat coast by October 23. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, as depicted by  www.windy.com  too largely agrees with this forecast, signalling activity to either side of the Peninsular India during this period.

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