Andhra Pradesh, October 7,2022: After enjoying a rather successful and rainier-than-usual monsoon, South Peninsular India was given a brief respite from the wet weather at the start of October. However, rains have since made a comeback in the southern states, and will likely stay put for the rest of the week.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), fairly widespread to widespread light or moderate rainfall with isolated heavy falls (64.5 mm-115.5 mm), thunderstorms and lightning are very likely over: According to the reports published in weather.com
- Tamil Nadu from Thursday to Sunday (October 6-9)
- Coastal Andhra Pradesh from Thursday to Monday (October 6-10)
- Telangana on Thursday (October 6)
- Interior Karnataka on Sunday (October 10)
Further, isolated very heavy showers (115.5 mm-204 mm) are expected over Andhra for the next 24 hours.
Given these forecasts, an orange alert (meaning ‘be prepared’) has been placed over Andhra Pradesh for Thursday alone, while a yellow watch (meaning ‘be updated’) has been issued across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu until the end of this week.
While most districts within the aforementioned states have been placed on a yellow watch in this forecast period, orange alerts have been issued particularly over Andhra’s Prakasam, Vizianagaram and Guntur districts and Telangana’s Jogulamba Gadwal, Vikarabad, Narayanpet, Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool and Wanaparthy districts for today.
In Andhra and Tamil Nadu, fishermen have been advised against venturing into the sea for the next 2-3 days due to the inclement weather.
Overall, the precipitation activity can be attributed to the low-pressure area and its associated cyclonic circulation over the west-central Bay of Bengal by the Andhra coast, the IMD has indicated.
Meanwhile, as far as the states’ monsoon performances are concerned, most of them recorded ‘excess’ rains through the recently-concluded monsoon period. Between June 1 and September 30, Andhra (575.5 mm), Telangana (1074 mm), Tamil Nadu (477.7 mm), and Karnataka (1078 mm) exceeded their respective seasonal averages by 10%, 46%, 45% and 30%.
However, the monsoon conditions themselves are yet to withdraw from South India; in fact, the monsoon is still in the process of exiting the northern parts of the country. Once the southwest monsoon completely retreats, its departure will pave the way for the beginning of the northeast monsoon (aka reverse monsoon), which dumps precipitation over India’s southeastern states from October to early January.
