*#Meghdoot: The Monsoon Magic 3*

On June 3, 2021, when the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced that the South-West (SW) Monsoon has arrived, it had advanced into some parts of south Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep area, south Kerala, south Tamil Nadu, remaining parts of Comorin – Maldives area and some more parts of southwest Bay of Bengal.

On the following link is a detailed explanation about the guidelines to be followed for declaring the onset of monsoon over Kerala and its further advance over the country.

https://mausam.imd.gov.in/imd_latest/contents/onset.php

By June 6, the SW monsoon had advanced into more parts of central Arabian Sea, parts of Maharashtra, entire Karnataka, parts of Telangana, entire Tamil Nadu, some parts of Andhra Pradesh, more parts of central Bay of Bengal and northeast Bay of Bengal and also the entire northeastern states of India, i.e. Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh apart from most parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal & Sikkim.

In recent years, IMD also gives a now-cast warnings, which forecasts rainfall in next 3-4 hours. See image, which was a now-cast warning issued last evening.

Incidentally, prior to Kerala, monsoon has crossed Andaman & Nicobar Islands, but it is the entry point to Kerala that is always considered for onset date.

Also, even when this is called SW monsoon as the winds that bring the rain come from south-west direction of the Indian landmass, if we look at the advance of monsoon over the country, the contour line showing the northern limit always moves in the north-western direction.

To understand it, we will first need to know why the winds come from south-west direction?

To be continued.....