Monsoon round the corner

http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/18/stories/2010051853490400.htm

Text of my monsoon-watch story in The Hindu on May 18:


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The upper level cyclonic circulation that hovered over southeast Bay of Bengal on Sunday morning intensified into a low pressure system by the same day evening and thence by degrees strengthened into a depression by Monday noon, causing heavy rainfall in the territory.

The system also floated closer to the country's east coast, moving in a northwest direction during the one-day period and lay centred on noon on Monday about 930 km east-south-east of Chennai, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) says in its bulletin.

It is likely to intensify further into a cyclonic storm and move initially to northwest and hit the Andhra Pradesh coast in a couple of days.

The significance of the system for Kerala is this: It can orient the direction of the flow of winds from the Arabian Sea across the length of the State, speeding up the onset of the monsoon over the State.

The system promises to lend a measure of dynamism to the start of the season in Kerala and the country as a whole, but much will depend on how it behaves during the next three or four days.

In the Andamans

The IMD on Monday announced the start of the monsoon over parts of south Bay of Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and most parts of the Andaman Sea.

The monsoon usually sweeps into the Indian region in an anti-clockwise and northward direction from the south, its first outpost being the Andaman Islands.

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