Monsoon waits for ‘Ashobaa’ to blow out over Oman

The monsoon remained unmoved from Monday’s alignment across the south peninsula as cyclone Ashobaa over north-west Arabian Sea headed towards the Oman coast.

The landfall is likely to happen between Sur and Muscat in Oman by Thursday night, an India Met Department update said on Tuesday.

Ashobaa will intensify another round into a severe cyclone before weakening as it approaches for landfall.

The severe cyclone could feature wind speeds between 95 and 105 km/hr and gusting to 120 km/hr on Wednesday.

Under its influence, pre-monsoon rains may lash south Gujarat until Wednesday afternoon. Isolated heavy falls are indicated for Karnataka and Konkan-Goa during this period.

Otherwise, the monsoon has been active over east India during the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning. Heavy rain has been reported from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya.

It will take another two to three days for it to advance over the south to further parts of Konkan, Karnataka, remaining parts of Tamil Nadu, parts of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, heat wave conditions prevailed over isolated places of east and west Uttar Pradesh; north Madhya Pradesh; Bihar; and Jharkhand.

North-west India and central India continued to witness nil, scanty or deficient rain during the 24 hours ending Tuesday morning.

Satellite imagery showed convective (rain-creating) clouds standing tall over north-eastern States, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Karnataka, Kerala, and Lakshadweep.

While no model has forecast any low-pressure area springing up in the Bay of Bengal, the US Climate Prediction Centre sees the Konkan-Mumbai coast remaining wet until June 21.

This is expected to happen with monsoon flows regaining vigour post-landfall of the cyclone, and look to hit the northern part of the west coast from June 14.

Eastern parts of central India, including Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and east Madhya Pradesh, are also forecast to receive rain.

This would happen as a rain wave over north-eastern States moves north-west along the foothills and adjoining plains of Bihar, Jharkhand, east Uttar Pradesh and the hilly regions of west Uttar Pradesh.

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