Southwest monsoon hits Kerala

The southwest monsoon hit Kerala on Friday, six days after its original scheduled date of onset, even as the country braced for what has been predicted to be a season of deficient rainfall.  The India Meteorological Department (IMD) cited the "fairly-widespread-to-widespread” rainfall over Kerala during the past 48 hours among conditions that signalled the onset of the monsoon over the state. It has predicted monsoon rainfall in the country this year to be only 88 per cent of the long-period average. "Out of the 14 rainfall monitoring stations for the onset of monsoon over Kerala, more than 70 per cent have reported rainfall of more than 2.5 mm over the past two days,” said an IMD statement on Friday. The monsoon has also advanced into some parts of coastal and south-interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The IMD predicted it to cover, over the next 48 hours, more parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema, coastal Andhra Pradesh and southern parts of the north-eastern states.   DHNS