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The northern limit (maximum extent which the monsoon has progressed) continues to pass through Hut Bay in the Little Andaman Island this morning, an India Met Department update has said.
But conditions are favourable for it to enter more parts of remaining parts of Andaman Sea, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and south-east, south-west and east-central Bay during the next two days.
Huge cloud bank
Satellite maps of the morning showed a huge mass of cloud hovering over south-west Bay of Bengal, just to the north-east of Sri Lanka and to the south-west of the Andaman & Nicoar Islands.
An even bigger cloud bank was in the process of entering southern Myanmar and adjoining Thailand even as the core monsoon flows strengthened across the Equator.
Meanwhile, the Maldivian Meteorological Service has warned that heavy rain and thunderstorms would lash the southern atolls of the island nation later today.
Surface winds will vary from to 15-20 km/hr in the central atolls and between 12 and 28 km/hr and elsewhere.
Winds could gust to 72 km/hr at times, the agency has warned.
Maldives, Sri Lanka
Seas are expected to be rough off the central atolls of Maldives and moderate over the rest. The official onset date of South-West monsoon into the atolls, just to the north of the Equator, is May 17.
Wind speeds registered on Monday were up to 37 km/hr across central atolls and up to 30 km/hr elsewhere, signalling that the monsoon may have indeed set in over the islands.
As for Sri Lanka, the next port of call for the monsoon after Andaman & Nicobar Islands, pre-monsoon thundershower regime continues to prevail this morning.
This is expected to escalate during the next few days, the local Met authority said, adding that fairly strong winds speeding up to 50 km/hr could be expected along the northern and southern coasts.
Sri Lanka is the penultimate gateway for the monsoon before it enters south-east Arabian Sea and along the coast of Kerala as it makes the keenly awaited onset over mainland India.
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