Monsoon arrives in India, heavy rains lash several parts of Kerala

The Southwest monsoon arrived in India on Thursday (June 4), with heavy rains lashing entire Kerala. This marks the rainy season (June-September) for the entire country. Heavy to very heavy rainfall has been forecast by India Meteorological Department (IMD) over Kerala during the next week.

The onset date of Southwest Monsoon in India is June 1, with rains first hitting Kerala and slowly advancing further. But this time it is three days behind its usual schedule, though this deviation is normal.

In fact the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) had forecast monsoon to hit Kerala as early as May 26, 2026, but weather systems later changed and Southwest Monsoon got delayed in India.

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According to IMD, monsoon has covered all of Kerala, Mahe and the Lakshadweep islands, and moved into parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It will take about a week to travel northwards into Telangana where heatwave alerts issued by the weather department has been withdrawn.

"The Southwest Monsoon has further advanced into the remaining parts of the Southwest & Southeast Arabian Sea, some parts of westcentral & eastcentral Arabian Sea, entire Lakshadweep islands, Kerala & Mahe, some parts of Karnataka & Tamil Nadu, remaining parts of Comorin area, southeast Bay of Bengal and some more parts of southwest, westcentral, eastcentral and northeast Bay of Bengal today." said IMD in its weather bulletin.