Sluggish monsoon delays rainfall across Andhra Pradesh

Visakhapatnam: Many parts of Andhra Pradesh remained dry and experienced oppressive heat and humidity. Although the southwest monsoon spread across most areas of the state, it lost momentum and remained sluggish.

The monsoon advance was expected to remain delayed due to the absence of a low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal.

The monsoon’s slow pace in the state indicated that irregular showers and thunderstorms would persist, rather than the consistent and sustained rainfall needed for Kharif operations.The southwest monsoon set over Andhra Pradesh on June 6, against its scheduled date of arrival on June 4. However, parts of north coastal Andhra Pradesh, including Vizag, Vizianagaram, Anakapalle, Kakinada, Srikakulam, Manyam and ASR districts, continued to experience hot, humid and uncomfortable weather conditions.Scientist at IMD-Amaravati, S Karunasagar, said that the El Niño phenomenon has now become active and will remain so throughout the monsoon season, and that the state will receive below-normal rainfall this year, he added.The weathermen stated that conditions are favourable for further advance of the southwest monsoon into the remaining parts of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, some more parts of Odisha and some parts of South Chhattisgarh during the next two to three days.

Vizagites are eagerly waiting for relief from the summer heat and humid weather conditions, but may have to wait a few more days, as monsoon progress stalled. The sultry weather conditions have been making our lives miserable for the past week, said V Ganesh, a resident of MVP Colony in Vizag city and a marketing executive.Though a few parts in the Rayalaseema region and the south coastal Andhra Pradesh region experienced moderate to heavy rainfall between Friday morning and Saturday morning, hot and humid weather conditions will prevail over coastal Andhra Pradesh for the next three to four days. Thunderstorms accompanied by lightning are likely at isolated places over coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam and Rayalaseema for the next two to three days.