Monsoon may revive over extreme South India in 3-4 days: IMD

New Delhi, Jun 14 (UNI) After more than a week's dry spell, the first echo of the monsoon's revival over extreme South India was recorded on the weatherman's radar screen today.

''The current meteorological analysis suggests the possibility of revival of monsoon over extreme south Peninsula after 3-4 days,'' the India Meteorological Department said here.

An IMD official said conditions were getting favourable for another spell of rains over Kerala, Karnataka and other parts of extreme south peninsular India where monsoon activity had weakened earlier this month.

However, it was too early to predict that the northern advance of monsoon which stopped on June 6 would restart anytime soon, he added.

''The weak monsoon conditions with subdued rainfall activity still continues to prevail over south Peninsula and east India''.

On June 9, while announcing that southwest monsoon had entered a weak phase, the IMD had said that there ought to be a surge in the strength of southwesterly winds over north Indian Ocean before the monsoon could advance further.

''In association with each surge, the rainfall activity gets revived and the rain belt shifts north and northwest,'' an IMD statement said, explaining the phenomenon.

Monsoon activity had decreased considerably along the west coast of India after June three. Eastern parts of the country, however, received good rains till June 7.

The northern limit of the monsoon passed through Porbandar, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Pune, Sholapur, Hyderabad, Jagdalpur, Raigarh, Daltonganj and Raxaul on June 6 -- thus covering parts of South Gujarat in the West and the North-Eastern states, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand in the East of India.

The monsoon had hit the Kerala coast six days early this year on May 26. It advanced rapidly along the country's west coast and reached Mumbai on May 31, ten days ahead of the normal date.

Though the monsoon had entered a weak phase, north-eastern states continued to experience widespread rains.

UNI VN CH RS1609