Monsoon enters north-east, heavy rains likely in Assam, Meghalaya

After a brief lull, the Bay of Bengal arm of the south-west monsoon has stirred into action and entered north-eastern parts of the country and is set to bring heavy rains over Assam and Meghalaya over the next two days, the IMD said Thursday.

"Southwest monsoon has further advanced into some parts of northwest Bay of Bengal, some more parts of northeast & eastcentral Bay of Bengal and most parts of Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland," the India Meteorological Department said.

On Wednesday, the monsoon had covered Bengaluru, Chikmagluru, Karwar.

Under the influence of monsoonal westerly winds from the Arabian Sea over the south peninsular India, the weather office has forecast fairly widespread rainfall over coastal and south Interior Karnataka, Kerala, Mahe and Lakshadweep and over the next five days.

It has also forecast isolated to scattered rains over Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, North Interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal during next five days.

Maximum temperatures have been rising gradually over northwest India and the weather office has issued heatwave warnings over Rajasthan, south Punjab and south Haryana over the next two days.

The weather office had upgraded its forecast for a normal monsoon this year on Monday. It said that monsoon rains would be fairly well-distributed across the country, except in north-eastern parts of the country and extreme south-western peninsula.

The IMD had announced the onset of monsoon over Kerala on May 29, three days ahead of the normal onset date of June 1.