The Hindu : Kerala News : A date with the weather gods

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

A date with the weather gods

M. Harish Govind

The weather station in the capital is the focus of national attention.

A CLOSE WATCH: The Met Director, M. D. Ramachandran, scans the cloud cover in a satellite picture of the Indian sub-continent. Photo: S. Mahinsha

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Every year, this is the time the entire country turns its attention on what is happening over the skies of the tiny State at the southernmost tip of the sub-continent - the gateway of the South West monsoon. This is also when the more than one-and-a-half-century-old weather station in the capital becomes the focus of national attention.

The Met Centre here is formally consulted by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Delhi, before announcing the onset of the country's most important weather phenomenon. The countdown to the onset actually starts when the IMD announces the break of the system over the Andamans. After that, it is a matter of about a week before the D-Day.

The Met officials here are quick to point out that they are totally guided by the headquarters at Delhi when it comes to announcing the onset. All data gathered here is simultaneously made available to the IMD, which takes into account six parameters before making the announcement, explains the Met Director, M. D. Ramachandran.

Westerlies

The officials here know that the monsoon has finally arrived when the westerlies blow directly and constantly from the southwest at a speed of 5.6 kmph. This is also the time when red herrings drawn by nature across the skies fox even experts.

For instance, Monday's heavy cloud cover towards the southwest of the peninsula with attendant westerlies would give the impression that the monsoon has set in, says Mr. Ramachandran. But the clouding has been caused by a trough over the land mass and the wind chart shows that the westerlies are blowing in a circular fashion at just 2.1 kmph.

These days, the telephones at the centre keep buzzing, several of the calls being from Met stations across the country. Mediapersons call every day as weather stories often make it to the front pages of newspapers during this time. The officials stick to the scientific straight and narrow when scribes angle for something `newsy' to `peg' their story with. Lay callers are also tricky to handle. One anxiously asks if the skies will hold till he completes the concreting of his house. Another wants to know if he can split his coconuts for drying before the rain starts. And then there is the caller who, when patiently told that the monsoon has not set in and that what we are getting now is pre-monsoon rain, retorts, "Monsoon or pre-monsoon, it is rain, after all, is it not?"

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section