Monsoon active over western coast.

Getting reports of heavy rain from south-Karnataka coast to southern tip of India.

Latest satellite pic also shows huge cloud activity thruout western coast., active central Bay and DEAD remains of "93A" just south of Pakistan.

Monsoon is on a HIGH over south-coastal Karnataka and Kerala.

Latest rainfall reports recorded on morning of 26-Jun-09.

Piravom (Ernakulam dt), 11, Kozhikode, Aluva (Ernakulam dt) 9 each, and CIAL Kochi and Mulki (Dakshina Kannada dt) 7 each.

Perinthalamanna and Angadipuram (both Malapuram dt), Kozhikode Airport, Kunnamkulam (Thrissur dt), Perumbavur (Ernakulam dt), Mangalore Airport and Panambur 6 each, Thanjavur, Natham (Dindigul dt),Cannur, Hosdurg (Kasargode dt), Ottapalam (Palakkad dt), Peermedu and Thodupuzha (both Idukki dt) 5 each, Thalasserry (Cannur dt), Thrissur, Kochi Airport, Alapuzha, Mancompu (Alapuzha dt), Thiruvalla (Pathanamthitta dt), Varkala (Thiruvanathapuram dt), Shriali and Honavar 4 each, Devala (Nilgiris dt), Mannarkad (Palakkad dt),Vellanikara (Thrissur dt),Sirpur (Adilabad dt) and Karwar 3 each, Nagapattinam, Naduvattam (Nilgiris dt), Vaikom and Kozha (Kottayam dt), Punalur, Amini Divi ,Belgaum Airport, Madikeri, Agumbe and Sakelashpura (Hassan dt) 2 each and Papanasam (Thanjavur dt), Valparai, Chinna Kallar (Coimbatore dt), Gudalur Bazar (Nilgiris dt), Ariyalur, Periyakulam (Theni dt), Chittur (Palakkad dt), Kottayam, Kanjirapally (Kottayam dt), Konni (Pathanamthitta dt), Agathi Airport, Minicoy, Hubli (Dharwad dt), Arakkuvallery (Visakapattinam dt), Gadag, Nargund (Gadag dt), Shorapur (Gulburga dt), Talaguppa (Shimoga dt),Sringeri, Mudigere and Balehonnur (all Chickmagalur dt), Hassan and Nanjangud (Mysore dt)1 each.

Latest IMD report on Monsoon::

The northern limit of monsoon passes through Lat. 23.0°N / Long. 60.0°E and Lat. 23.0°N / Long. 65.0°E, Bhuj, Baroda, Nasik, Sholapur, Hyderabad, Kalingapatnam, Paradip, Balasore, Bankura and Gangtok till date.

···· A low pressure area is likely to form over northwest Bay of Bengal during next 24 hours. Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon over remaining parts of Karnataka, some more parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, remaining parts of West Bengal & Sikkim and some parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh during next 3-4 days.

El Nino may be hindering Indian monsoon

India's faltering monsoon rains may be affected by a nascent El Nino weather anomaly forming in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, a leading U.S. scientist said Thursday.

"The developing El Nino might be playing a role in the rather slow start to the Indian monsoon," Vernon Kousky, the top EL Nino specialist at the U.S. Climate Prediction Center, said in an email interview with Reuters.

The CPC is an office under the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

India's Meteorological Department said Thursday the country's annual monsoon rains for the week ended June 24 were 68 percent below normal, posing a threat to farmers who depend heavily on these rains to sow their crops.

A weak Indian monsoon would impact markets ranging from gold to sugar, wheat to vegetable oils.

India is the world's biggest consumer of both gold and sugar, with farmers there buying the metal ahead of the year-end festival of lights.

El Nino is a weather phenomenon which results in an abnormal warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The reverse is true in the La Nina weather phenomenon.

In its monthly update, the CPC said an El Nino could form during the June to August period this year.

Occurring every three years or so, El Nino wreaks havoc in weather patterns from South Africa to India to Southeast Asia and all the way to South America and the Atlantic basin.

A severe El Nino spawns searing drought in countries like Indonesia and Australia, while causing heavy flooding in Peru, Ecuador and Chile among others.

Some scientists believe El Nino encourages wind shear that could disrupt the formation of storms during the Atlantic hurricane season. So instead of an average of about 10 storms, which would threaten oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, the number may be less.

It may also affect winter weather in the world's top heating oil market, the U.S. Northeast.

El Nino, which means small boy in Spanish, was named in honor of the Christ child by anchovy fishermen in South America who first noticed the phenomenon in the 19th Century.

The last strong El Nino struck in 1998 around the time of the Asian financial crisis. It killed several thousand people and caused billions in damages to crops and roads and bridges.

Kousky said, "Several models are forecasting a significant El Nino, which could be comparable to past strong events."

But, he added, it was still "a bit too early to make confident forecasts of its intensity" for this developing El Nino in 2009.

Climate and weather scientists should have a better idea about the possible strength of this El Nino by August, he said.

The peak intensity of most El Ninos normally takes place around December to January.

Taken from:: http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-40604420090625?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0