Is northeast monsoon drawing to a close? – Times of India

Chennai: With the city experiencing a dry spell for a week and weathermen indicating no significant weather activity in the next few days, is the northeast monsoon over? While IMD has forecast only light spells over the city and suburbs for the next two days, bloggers said the rainfall intensity may increase to moderate around this weekend due to a low pressure over the Bay of Bengal. After December 27, there may be a decrease in rain activity which, according to private forecasters, may bring the monsoon to an end officially.
For the next 48 hours, the city and suburbs are likely to get light rain. Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be between 29 deg C-30 deg C and 23 deg C-24 deg C.
“This is due to a low pressure over central parts of south Bay of Bengal and adjoining east equatorial Indian Ocean, which is likely to move west-northwestwards slowly towards Sri Lanka coast during the next two days,” an IMD official said. The October-December northeast monsoon has brought 884.7mm of rain in the city so far, which is 15% above normal. During the same period, Tamil Nadu received 424.5mm rainfall, which is normal for the season.
Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologist, IMD, said much of the rain activity triggered by the low pressure over the Bay may be restricted to delta region and south Tamil Nadu with a possibility of isolated heavy spells between December 23 and 26.
Blogger Pradeep John said the westerly trough has pushed the low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal away from the Indian coast. “Models are showing some rainfall in January, so we may have to wait and watch though major rain activity over north Tamil Nadu is over,” he added.