IMD Shares Important Update On Southwest Monsoon And Northeast Monsoon Season; Details Inside

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from the entire country and the onset of the northeast monsoon.

The weather agency mentioned that Southwest monsoon has withdrawn from the entire country on October 15. Simultaneously, the Northeast Monsoon rainfall activity has also commenced over the southeast peninsular India on the same day.

The commencement of the Northeast Monsoon activities over the southeast peninsular region has led to a well-marked low-pressure area over the southern Bay of Bengal. It is likely to continue to move west-northwestwards in the next 24 hours, affecting Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts, the IMD predicted.

The weather forecaster has predicted isolated extremely heavy rainfall across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and South Interior Karnataka from October 15 to 17. Isolated heavy rainfall is also expected in the Rayalaseema, Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam on October 15 and October 16, while coastal Karnataka is expected to receive heavy rain on Wednesday.

The weather agency had earlier predicted that the southwest monsoon may start withdrawing from the country between September 19 and 25. Typically, the southwest monsoon makes its onset over Kerala by June 1 and covers the entire country by July 8, but this year the onset began early with Monsoon arriving in Kerala on May 30. Generally, it starts retreating from northwest India around September 17, withdrawing entirely by October 15.

Parts of Tamil Nadu are facing heavy rain leading to the closure of schools and colleges in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, and Chengalpattu districts after a red alert by IMD. The Regional Met Centre (RMC) said that Tamil Nadu would receive heavy rain due to a low-pressure area over the southeast Bay of Bengal. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Tamil Nadu Disaster Response Force are being deployed in the areas prone to be affected.

The Met Department has issued a orange alert for the many parts in the state, including Ranipet, Tiruvannamali, Kallakurichi, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Thanjavur.

According to IMD, scattered to fairly widespread light to moderate rainfall could be seen in the western region, including Konkan and Goa, while isolated scattered to light to moderate rainfall will be witnessed in the remaining parts. The weather agency also predicted isolated heavy rainfall in these areas from Oct. 15 to Oct. 17.

However, the weather agency predicted dry weather to prevail in Saurashtra and Kutch region of Gujarat between Oct. 17 and Oct. 21.

On the other hand, IMD did not predict significant rainfall in the northwest, Central, Northeast and East regions this week.

Last year, the Southwest monsoon withdrawal commenced from west Rajasthan on Sept. 25 with a delay of 8 days. On the other hand, the northeast monsoon started on October 21, 2023.