The Southwest monsoon was awaited for a long time but it has not finally announced its arrival. It was predicted to commence from 26 May but got delayed even from its normal onset date of 1 June. And now, on 4 June, the southwest monsoon is finally set to begin.
The monsoon stream had already reached the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and South Sri Lanka. This happened on 16 May, much ahead of the normal time. But when it was about to arrive in Kerala, it got delayed due to the cyclonic disturbances at the Kerala Coast. Southern Kerala was able to take some benefit of the disturbances, it eventually delayed the monsoon for North Kerala.
Now the northward movement of the same has been cleared, and it was confirmed by Neetha K. Gopal, Director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The monsoon is now expected to reach the entire state within a day or two.
Some regions in Kerala even witnessed heavy rains last night. Due to this reason, the IMD has also issued an Orange alert for three districts, which includes Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulam. The department said that thunderstorms with heavy rain and wind speeds reaching 40 kmph were likely to happen in such regions.