South-west monsoon will remain active in peninsular and central India: IMD

New Delhi: The southern and western states that have received heavy rainfall in the last few days, are likely to be battered more over the next 4-5 days as the south-west monsoon will remain active in peninsular and central India, the India Meteorological Department warned on Tuesday.

Isolated extremely heavy rainfall are very likely over Konkan and Goa, Gujarat, coastal and south interior Karnataka, and Ghat areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, whereas heavy to very heavy precipitation is likely in other parts of Kerala, Telangana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya.

“The south west monsoon will remain in an active phase for another 8-10 days bringing copious rain up to peninsular, central and western India. Subsequently, it may go into a weak phase,” M Rajeevan, veteran weather scientist and former Secretary, the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences told DH.

IMD has forecasted heavy rainfall across Kerala for the next five days and a red alert has been sounded in Kozhikode and Kannur districts on Tuesday. Orange alert has been issued for seven more districts.

In neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the picturesque Nilgiris and parts of Coimbatore districts have been drenched with unprecedented rainfall in the past two days. The eastern slopes of the Western Ghats in Kanyakumari and Tenkasi districts in Tamil Nadu have also experienced heavy to very heavy rains since July 14.

The continuous downpour has made life tough for residents of Ooty and tourists who are experiencing nail-biting cold for the past few days. A thick layer of mist is also causing inconvenience to motorists in the Nilgiris.

With the coastal Konkan-Goa recording over 200 mm of rainfall, the Konkan Railway saw two major disruptions, the last one being on Sunday due to a landslide on the Diwankhavati-Vinhere section in the Raigad-Ratnagiri route. This came a week after a massive waterlogging at the Madure-Pernem section in Goa.

Weather blogger K Srikanth said heavy rains were an indication of the surge in the south-west monsoon. “The low pressure in Odisha and an offshore trough between Gujarat and Kerala coasts are bringing heavy rains to Nilgiris and Coimbatore districts. The winds are quite strong,” Srikanth told DH.

Telangana, especially Hyderabad, has been experiencing moderate rains with gusty winds since last Sunday, bringing temperatures down. The weather bureau has issued a yellow alert for the city between July 17-19 and a warning for heavy to very heavy rains in coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh in the next 48 hours. The state disaster response force has been put on high alert.

A red alert has been issued for six Gujarat districts including Surat, Navsari and Valsad for the next 24 hours.

Rajeevan said active phases generally stay for around two weeks followed by a weak phase when the monsoon trough will move northward bringing rains to the Himalayan foothills.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh too received incessant rains in the last few days triggering flood in 20 districts. Many ghats were submerged in Varanasi as water level of Ganga continues to rise forcing change in the venue for the famous Ganga Aarti.

In the north east, half of Assam remains inundated killing 96 people and impacting over 5 lakh people. More than 200 wild animals including two one-horn rhinos died in the flood. But more rains in the north east could be expected in August during the weak phase of the monsoon when the trough moves upwards, Rajeevan said.

Rajasthan is about 8% short of monsoon rains, but heavy rains are expected later this week as per IMD, Jaipur unit. The state has been receiving erratic rainfall over the past few years, which sometimes have led to flooding.

In 2017, Rajasthan suffered heavy losses due to floods after heavy rains. Also there was excess rain in 2019 and 2023. Last May 2023, the desert state witnessed its wettest May in 100 years, showing signs of changing weather patterns.

(With inputs from ETB Sivapriyan, Arjun Raghunath, Mrityunjay Bose, SNV Sudhir, Sanjay Pandey, Satish Jha, Sumir Karmakar, Rakhee Roytalukdar and Kalyan Ray)