Southwest monsoon, a lifeline to millions of farmers of the country, missed its date with the Kerala coast.
NEW DELHI: Southwest monsoon, a lifeline to millions of farmers of the country, on Thursday missed its date with the Kerala coast but a top weather scientist sought to play the incident down saying it was not a "sign of worry."
"True, the onset over Kerala has not happened," Ajit Tyagi, Director General of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The IMD had earlier forecast that the southwest monsoon will hit the Kerala coast on May 29, four days ahead of its normal June one onset.
Tyagi said Kerala had experienced a spell of rainfall but the IMD was waiting for the weather system to be more fully entrenched to declare the onset.
He pointed out that the normal date for onset of monsoon in Kerala was June one.
"The onset of monsoon is one activity which is important as it signals the arrival of rains over a major landmass. But it has nothing to do with the quantum of rainfall during the season," Tyagi said.
Sufficient monsoon rains would help India harvest good rice, soybean and groundnut crops and help the government in tackling the steep increase in the inflation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that if the country receives normal monsoon rains, it would moderate the rise in prices.
The Andaman archipelago and vast parts of the Bay of Bengal has been receiving monsoon rains for the past few days.
The IMD had announced that the annual seasonal rains had set in over the Andaman Seas on May 10, five days in advance.
Since 2005, IMD has been issuing operational forecasts for monsoon onset over Kerala using statistical techniques.
Over the past 11 years, monsoon has set in over Kerala in advance on four occasions, the earliest being in 1999 when the it received rains on May 22 against the forecast for May 26.
Monsoon had been delayed by 13 days in Kerala in 2003 when the weather office had forecast the onset to happen on June seven.
In 1997, monsoon had reached Kerala on June 12 against the forecast date of June 10, in 1998 the onset was on June three while the model predicted it to be June eight, 1999 -- May 22 (forecast date May 26), 2000 -- June one (May 27), 2001 -- May 26 (May 27), 2002 -- June nine (June four), 2003 -- June 13 (June seven), 2004 -- June three (June seven), 2005 -- June seven (June 11), 2006 -- May 26 (May 30) and 2007 - May 28 (May 24).
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