After entering in the Andaman Sea two days before the scheduled date, the Southwest Monsoon is making progress. Here we are giving some interesting facts that will make you understand the trend of onset of Monsoon in India in recent times:
Earliest arrival
The earliest arrival in last ten years was on 23rd May, 2009 (timely arrival date is usually 1st June), the year which observed deficient monsoon rain that led to widespread drought in the country.
Stagnated Monsoon
During the same year (2009), just after the onset, the eastern arm of Southwest monsoon got stagnated over sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim for more than a month from 25th May to 28th June.
On time arrival
In last ten years, the onset of Southwest Monsoon has never been delayed more than a week.
Tendency of arriving earlier
Since 2005, six out of nine occasions, monsoon has hit the Kerala coast before the scheduled date. It means that in recent past, monsoon has showed a tendency of arriving earlier.
In its earlier forecast, Skymet Meteorology Division in India had said that Monsoon may arrive along the Kerala coast by 28th May with a model error of +/-2 two days. The Southwest Monsoon is expected to be below the normal average this year. In April, Skymet Meteorology Division in India had released its Monsoon foreshadow for 2014, where it confirmed the coming Monsoon to be ‘below normal’ at 94% (error margin of ± 4%) of the Long Period Average (LPA) of 896 mm for the four-month period from June to September.
Photograph by Jean-Marie Hullot
