Monsoon is in the wind

Monsoon is in the wind
Wednesday June 20 2007 10:20 IST

BANGALORE: Gusty winds and a nip in the air brought Bangaloreans back to the good old days of ‘air-conditioned’ city. This year monsoon till now has been erratic, beating the weathermen by a mile. But the meteorological bureau says that the weather is indeed favourable for South-West Monsoon (SWM).

Only, the strong winds are frustrating clouds from precipitation.

Temperatures have dipped over the last couple of days from 31.8°C on June 14 to 28.6°C on June 19.

Strong pressure gradients along the coastal line have caused the temperatures to dip and strong winds to blow.

The mean wind speed on any normal day is 10-15 km per hour, whereas the wind speed on Tuesday was 41 km/hour and on Monday, it was 45 km/hour. It’s a normal phenomenon in June, B Puttanna, meteorologist at Meteorological Centre, Bangalore, told the this website's newspaper.

“Winds are blowing from high pressure area (Southern Hemisphere, near Peru) to low pressure areas (towards Pakistan). Coastal Karnataka and Western Ghats are receiving good rainfall recording upto 24 cms.

If low pressure is formed in Andhra Pradesh, then the interior parts of the State will receive good rainfall,’’ he said.

The City and all the 14 districts of interior Karnataka will receive good rainfall in the next couple of days, he avers.

“There is good moisture content in the cloud till the height of 6-km. Thus, in the forthcoming days, the Bangaloreans can expect good rainfall,’’ he said.