Over a fortnight into the southwest monsoon season, Kerala is still not yet seeing the kind of torrential rains that normally heralds a good monsoon. A report from PTI in The Hindu says "Despite its timely onset, southwest monsoon has been weak over Kerala with the state registering an average deficiency of 40 per cent in rainfall in its first lap.
While north Kerala received fairly good rains in the first phase, the southern areas, especially the tail-end districts of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, had gone without any substantial rainfall in the last fortnight.
According to sources in the India Meteorological Department (IMD), lack of sufficient wind speed was the main factor constricting the monsoon activity in the region.
Shortly after its weak onset over Kerala coast on May 31, a low pressure was formed towards south of the Lakshadweep, which took a good portion of humidity towards the Oman coast. This came in the way of the monsoon activity gaining momentum over the Kerala coast, IMD Director M D Ramachandran told PTI on Sunday.
Now, a low pressure had been formed off the Orissa Coast in the Bay of Bengal, and, if it strengthened, the monsoon would pick up in the coming days bringing good rains across the state, he said.
In its initial phase, the state would have received an average 225 mm of rainfall but till last mid-weak there was deficiency of about 40 per cent.
Traditionally, the first fortnight after the onset of the monsoon -- known in local parlance as 'edavapathy'-- should have brought heavy rains. This was critical factor for farming operations and also essential to sustain the hydel power base of the state."
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