NE monsoon kicks in, brings good rainfall in south

The Northeast monsoon has become active in the country and brought goodly rain to its southern parts on the heels of the departing Southwest monsoon which has left India facing a rain deficit.

According to the MeT department, as it progresses, the Northeast monsoon has brought rain to several places in south India.

"Southwest monsoon withdrew from the entire country on Oct. 18. Simultaneously, the Northeast monsoon rains have commenced over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and adjoining areas of south Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka on Oct. 18," said an IMD bulletin.

Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency, has said that several parts of south India have now received widespread rainfall under the influence of the Northeast monsoon.

"Several places in Tamil Nadu, Kerala including Karnataka have received some good rain on Thursday. In a span of 24 hours, from 8.30 A.M. On Thursday, Chennai received a whopping 78.1-mm of rain, taking the total rainfall amount in the city to 329.6-mm, which is more than the October average of 286.4-mm.

"Other places in Tamil Nadu too have received rain -- Dharmapuri (19-mm), Coonoor (18.6-mm), Salem (16-mm), Kodaikanal (11-mm) and Pamban (8.2-mm)," the agency said.

Rainfall in Kerala has been light to moderate with Kottayam receiving showers measuring 29.8-mm followed by Kozhikode (27.9-mm), Thiruvananthapuram (13.4-mm), Kochi (9.4-mm) and Alappuzha (5.9-mm).

"Karnataka, too, received good rain with Mangalore recording (68.6-mm) rainfall on Thursday. Agumbe saw 19.8-mm rain, Karwar, 16.4-mm, and Bangalore, 8-mm," the agency added.

India has witnessed below normal rainfall this year, as predicted by the MeT department.

For the country as a whole, the rainfall in the wet season of June-September was 12 per cent short of the normal.

The seasonal rainfall received was 79 per cent of the long period average (LPA) over northwest India, 90 per cent of the LPA in central India, 93 per cent in the south peninsula and 88 per cent over northeast India.