Southwest Monsoon has set in over Kerala today, says MET Department

The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday said that Southwest Monsoon has hit most parts of Kerala and some parts of Tamil Nadu, which is 3 days ahead of its normal date.

The MET department also said that the monsoon arrival may advance to parts of northeastern states and Karnataka in the next 48 hours.

The arrival of Monsoon in Kerala marks the start of the four-month-long rainy season in India.

Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency and a rival of the IMD, had said that the monsoon made its arrival in Kerala on Wednesday itself.

The IMD department in April predicted that there will be 97% normal monsoon for the year 2018-19, which could be a good news for the rural economy that suffered due to the twin impact of drought years and demonetisation.

The IMD had earlier said that conditions were favourable for the further advance of the Monsoon into some parts of South Arabian Sea, remaining parts of Comorin­Maldives area, some parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, some more parts of South Bay of Bengal, remaining parts of Andaman Sea and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.