UNI
NEW DELHI, Jun 17: After playing truant since June 6, the southwest monsoon seems to be finally reviving over the country, the India Meteorological Department said on Saturday in its most optimistic projection in ten days.
A satellite picture released by the IMD showed mass of white clouds heading towards Kerala, Karnataka and south Maharashtra coasts.
Pic: Dayananda Kukkaje - Daijiworld News Network
"There are favourable signals of revival of southwest monsoon activity over the south peninsula around June 19. Scattered rains have already commenced over Kerala, Coastal Karnataka and south Konkan and Goa. This activity is likely to increase during the next 2-3 days and subsequently extend northwards along the West Coast,'' the IMD said.
The department had on Wednesday noticed the first whiff of the monsoon's revival over extreme South India.
''The current meteorological analysis suggests the possibility of revival of monsoon over extreme south Peninsula after 3-4 days,'' the IMD had said on June 14.
Monsoon had entered a weak phase earlier this month and its northern advance had halted. The IMD had marked an East-West line running through Raxaul, Daltonganj, Raigarh, Jagdalpur, Hyderabad, Sholapur, Pune, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Porbandar as its northern limit on June 6.
The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) had advised farmers in areas with deficient rainfall, especially in Central and North-West India, to delay sowing Kharif crop in view of the lull in monsoon activity.
The IMD said on Saturday rain/thundershowers were likely at many places over Western Himalayas, northeastern States, Kerala, coastal and south interior Karnataka, south Konkan and Goa and south central Maharashtra over the next three days.
Rain/thundershowers were also likely at a few places over West Bengal and Sikkim, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, north interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, north Konkan and Chhattisgarh and at isolated places over Bihar, Jharkhand, north central Maharashtra, Marathawada, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha.
Duststorm/thunderstorm with isolated squall was likely at a few places over plains of northwest India.
Fairly widespread rainfall occurred over north-eastern states over the last 24 hours and this activity was likely to continue for the next two-three days, the IMD said.
Scattered rain/thundershower occurred over western Himalayas and isolated duststorm/thunderstorm over plains of northwest India in association with a western disturbance over the last 24 hours. This activity was likely to continue during next 1-2 days.
North Lakhimpur and Tezpur (7 cm each), Kochi and Goa (6 cm each), Kolkata (4 cm), Sangli, Ganganagar and Honavar (3 cm each) received good rainfall in the last 24 hours.
Rain-related stories from around Mangalore with colorful pictures: