Chennai: The much awaited North East monsoon set in over South India on Friday with a trough of low pressure over Bay of Bengal expected to bring more rains throughout the region in the next 24 hours.
"The South West monsoon has fully withdrawn from the country. The North East monsoon set in today over Tamil Nadu, Kerala, adjoining areas of south Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka," Regional Meteorological Centre Director Dr SR Ramanan told a news agency.
He said rainfall occurred at many places over Tamil Nadu and Kerala and at a few areas over coastal and south interior Karnataka. Heavy rains are expected to occur in Tamil
Nadu and Puducherry in the next 48 hours, starting 8.30 am today, he said.
Stating that the normal date of onset of the North East monsoon is October 20, Ramanan said this year the monsoon had set in on Oct 29, the same date as of last year`s.
On delay in onset of the monsoon, he said it was due to wind pattern from easterlies not setting in. "The monsoon will be there till this December", he added.
He said Papanamsam in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu received the highest rainfall (13 cm) in the last 24 hours.
Hoping for a normal north east monsoon, he said on an average about 43 cm rainfall is received during the monsoon. "In the last monsoon the rainfall was excess by 13 percent".
According to met officials, North East monsoon supports the main cultivation season, known as Rabi in southern India and Maha in Sri Lanka.
The monsoon season also sees occurrence of cyclonic storms over Bay of Bengal, some of which are of very high intensity and have caused extensive destruction over coastal
and inland regions.
PTI
