Our Bureau
Kochi
The unseasonal rains and early monsoon have disrupted the predictions by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for the Southwestern region of India. The IMD has reported that the southwestern monsoon has arrived over the state of Kerala eight days earlier than what was the usual expected date.
The IMD took to their social media account and posted, “Southwest monsoon has set in over Kerala today, 24 May 2025, against the normal date of 1 June. Thus, southwest monsoon has set in over Kerala 8 days before the normal date.”
This has come to a surprise to many weather forecasters as this marks as the earliest monsoon onset in the past 16 years since 2009. Over the past two days several regions of Kerala and Karnataka have been facing very heavy rainfall. The IMD, on Friday, also raised warnings and alerts all around the southern regions of very heavy rainfalls in the upcoming days. They have predicted that these regions will face heavy rainfalls from May 23rd to May 29th.
This year the meteorological department had already predicted that the rainfall will be more than normal. It was estimated that the total rainfall will be 105 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) of 880 mm. The major support to these monsoonal changes can be the two major oceanic influences i.e., the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole which are currently in a neutral phase.
The IMD has declared that there can be three major signs that showcase the inflated rains and an early arrival of monsoon. Firstly, there was rainfall of at least 2.5 mm which was recorded at a minimum of 14 meteorological stations for two days straight. Secondly there were deep westerly winds that extended up to 600 hectopascals. And thirdly, there was a decline in Outgoing Longwave Radiation, the value of which stooped down to 200 watts per square meter.
