Advancing monsoon on its natural course, to hit Andaman & Nicobar islands tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Rubbishing aside the fear of El Nino affecting the advancement of rainfall in the country this year, Indian southwest monsoon is on its natural course and rain is expected to occur at many places across Andaman & Nicobar islands by tomorrow.

Indian Meteorological Department ( IMD) in its forecast issued on Monday said that a day before southwest monsoon was set in over most parts of Andaman sea and some parts of southeast Bay of Bengal.

“Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon over remaining parts of Andaman sea, some more parts of southeast Bay of Bengal and some parts of southwest & east central Bay of Bengal during next 48 hours,” said the IMD weather forecast.

Keeping its date with Kerela for June 1st, IMD last week said that monsoon would hit Andaman and Nicobar islands by May 20th.

Due to expected occurrence of El Nino this year, India’s monsoon is forecast to be below normal. The weather office has advised farmers to start planting crops quickly to take advantage of pre-monsoon showers and escape the impact of El Nino in the latter half of the season.

El Nino is an oceanic phenomenon, which emerges after a gap of every 3 to 7 years, leading to warm water temperature around Pacific coast of South America.

El Nino has a history of adversely impacting the rainfall in India during monsoon. In the last decade, 2002, 2004 and 2009 were drought years in India due to emergence of El Nino. IMD and Delhi based private forecaster Skymet have predicted 2014 to be a below normal monsoon year for India due to El Nino.

Northern part of the country however would still reel under sweltering heat. “Heat wave conditions were prevailing at a few places over Bihar and Gangetic West Bengal and at isolated places over Odisha. The maximum temperature recorded was 43.0°C,” said IMD’s daily forecast.