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Scattered low and medium clouds with moderate to intense convection spread out over the South Arabian Sea this morning as the monsoon countdown progressed.
Heavy rain is lashing Maldives across the north, central and southern atolls, according to information put out by Maldives Meteorological Service at 11.10 am this morning.
Heavy rain in Maldives
Maldives lies just to the south of Lakshadweep Islands and south-west of Sri Lanka, and receives the monsoon first in the neighbourhood.
The Sri Lankan Met Department warned that fairly strong winds of up to 50 km/hr in speed may lash the western slopes of the Central Hills and up to 70 km/hr along the northern and southern sea areas.
Meanwhile, intense clouding was noticed over the West-Central Bay of Bengal off the Andhra Pradesh coast in India, the South-West Bay, the Andaman Sea, the Gulf of Martaban, and the Tenaserim coast.
Favourable conditions
India Met Department (IMD) said that the northern limit of the monsoon continued to pass through Mayabander in the Middle Andaman Island. The monsoon had entered the Andamans on May 14.
IMD assessed that the conditions are favourable for its further advance into more parts of South-East Bay, East-Central Bay and remaining parts of North Andaman Sea by tomorrow.
Meanwhile, over the mainland, the prevailing heat wave regime has shifted from North-west India to East and East-central India.
Thundershowers have instead been reported overnight from North-west India, North-East India and Peninsular India.
Higher pressure
Meanwhile, the US National Centres for Environmental Prediction maintained its outlook for enhanced rainfall along the Kerala coast after May 25.
According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the cross-equatorial flows off the Africa coast may pick up speed from May 22 as they head into the Arabian Sea.
But it saw some slackening as the winds blew into the Kerala coast due to non-seasonal higher pressure in the Central Arabian Sea.
Winds speeds are, however, seen to to be holding above the threshold level over Sri Lanka and adjoining tip of Peninsular India around May 26.
The onset of monsoon along Kerala coast may have to wait until the high-pressure system over Arabian Sea breaks down.
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