Rains are knocking on Mumbai’s door!

The much-awaited Southwest monsoon will hit Kerala on Tuesday and will take another two weeks to Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra.

“Monsoon will arrive in Mumbai in the second week of June. The climatic date for the rains is June 10, but it can pour three or four days before or after the date,” weathermen said

Meanwhile, the Southwest monsoon is likely to hit Kerala on Tuesday, in line with the India Meteorological Department's earlier forecast, an official with the weather department said. “As per our assessment, rains will hit Kerala tomorrow…formation of cyclone Mora will help the rains reach on time,” the official said.

The deep depression over east central Bay of Bengal has intensified into cyclonic storm Mora.

Conditions were favourable for rains to advance into some parts of southeast Arabian Sea and parts of Bay of Bengal during the next 24 hours, according to the weather bureau.

Monsoon currents have already hit the Andaman sea and the Nicobar islands.

The normal date of the onset of the monsoon over Kerala is Jun 1. Last year, the monsoon had set in over the Kerala coast on June 8.

The weather department has estimated that this year, the Jun-Sep monsoon rains over the country would be at 96% of the long-period average.

However, India Meteorological Department Director General K.J. Ramesh has said the prospects of normal monsoon rains across the country have improved due to the receding possibility of the emergence of the El Nino weather phenomenon.

El Nino, an abnormal heating of sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, is usually associated with below-normal southwest monsoon rainfall.