Monsoon racing to India, may hit Kerala this month: IMD

New Delhi, May 15: The south-west monsoon will hit the Kerala coast on May 30 this year, the India Meteorological Department said today, raising hopes of an early end to the long summer and giving farmers news to cheer and talk about.

However, the onset of monsoon two days ahead of the normal onset date of June 1 in Kerala has no ''one to one correspondence'' with subsequent rainfall over the rest of the country, the IMD said in a statement.

The forecast, based on an ''indigenously developed'' technique used successfully last year as well, had error chances of plus/minus three days, it added. Last year, the monsoon hit Kerala on June 5 as against the IMD's forecast of June 7.

The south-west monsoon normally arrives in Kerala by June 1. It slowly moves northwards along the western coast and northwestwards across central India and covers the whole country by July 15.

It strikes Mumbai by June 10 and Delhi by June 29.

It is unusual for the monsoon to strike Kerala in May itself.

Over the last 50 years, the earliest monsoon onset over Kerala was on May 14, 1960, while the most delayed onset was on June 18, 1972.

UNI