Monsoon arrives in Kerala, northeast India

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Thiruvananthapuram: The southwest monsoon has arrived over Kerala and parts of northeastern states, the IMD announced on Tuesday, as the southern state received widespread rainfall since Monday.

The monsoon has advanced into some parts of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, the IMD said.

"Widespread rainfall occurred over Kerala during the past two days. A total of 78 per cent monitoring stations for monsoon onset over Kerala have reported rainfall for the last 48 hours," the IMD statement said.

The IMD statement said that conditions are favourable for further advance of the Southwest Monsoon into remaining parts of south Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep area and Kerala, some parts of central Arabian Sea, coastal and south interior Karnataka, some more parts of Tamil Nadu, southwest, west central and east central Bay of Bengal, most parts of northeast Bay of Bengal and some more parts of north-eastern states during next 3-4 days.

The IMD director here A.S. Sudevan said though it was sunny in the morning here for a while, there are other indicators that are taken into consideration when announcing the onset of the monsoon.

"In the past two days rainfall was quite heavy in several districts of the state and it touched 11 mm. The forecast for the coming four days indicate good rainfall. It's a good beginning and indications are that this time Kerala will get a very good monsoon," Sudevan told the media.

The onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala signals the arrival of monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and represents the beginning of rainy season in the region.

According to the IMD's Delhi office, monsoon generally strikes Kerala in the first week of June.

The normal monsoon onset over Kerala is June 1. Since 2005, the IMD started to issue operational forecasts for the date.

The forecast of the monsoon onset issued during the past 12 years (2005-2016) were proved to be correct every year except 2015.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had to face the wrath of rains when he found out that the ground floor of the Ernakulam guest house where he was staying was flooded. When newsmen came to him seeking a byte, he ducked the media saying, "Now that the rains have come you will have lots of news", and got away.