The South-West monsoon has advanced into most parts of Andaman Nicobar Islands and Andaman Sea on Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The entire Andaman Sea, Andaman Islands and some parts of East-Central Bay of Bengal may be covered during the next 2-3 days, it further asdded.
The government has been hoping for a normal monsoon this year amid rising food prices to maintain the agricultural growth and to curb inflation.
The Andaman and Nicobar islands and adjoining areas have been experiencing rainfall due to strengthening south-westerly winds in the lower tropospheric levels, the weather bureau said.
Monsoon has advanced into parts of south Bay of Bengal and some areas are expected to be covered by Thursday.
The IMD had earlier predicted that the monsoon to hit south Andaman Sea and the adjoining south-east Bay of Bengal around May 15, and the Kerala coast on May 27. Normally, monsoon covers the entire Andaman and Nicobar Islands on May 22 and reaches Kerala on June 1 with an error margin of +/-5 days.
Focus on Kharif crops
After facing an unexpected decline in production of rabi foodgrains during 2021-22 crop year (July-June), the focus will be on kharif output next year, particularly on paddy, which largely depends on monsoon for irrigation as rain-fed area is about 52 per cent.
The June-September monsoon season has a share of 73 per cent in the country’s annual rainfall of 119 cm. India may have a normal monsoon (96-104 per cent of long period average) this year, both IMD and private weather forecaster Skymet have predicted.
Though, normal monsoon is a good news for agriculture, the quantity of rainfall, geographical distribution and timing will decide its impact, Niti Aayog Member Ramesh Chand had said. The expectation is also of a normal agriculture growth, he had said.
Cyclonic circulations
Meanwhile, IMD said that the presence of two separate cyclonic circulations over Lakshadweep and north Tamil Nadu coast are expected to bring fairly widespread rainfall with isolated thunderstorm/lightning/gusty winds with isolated heavy to very heavy falls over Kerala, coastal and south interior Karnataka during the next 4-5 days.
Isolated heavy rainfall is expected over Tamil Nadu from Monday to Wednesday and over Lakshadweep in next two days. Extremely heavy rainfalls may be seen in coastal and south interior Karnataka on Wednesday, IMD said in a statement.
It also said that scattered to fairly widespread light/moderate rainfall with thunderstorm, lightning, gusty winds are likely to be witnessed over Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on May 16-17. Isolated light rainfall with thunderstorm/lightning/gusty winds has been predicted over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on Monday and Tuesday.