North East Monsoon

North East Monsoon

Part of: Prelims and GS-I – Geography 

Context The heavy rain that lashed Chennai on Saturday night led to flooding in at least 40 busy residential and commercial neighbourhoods in the city. The overnight rain, which was reportedly the heaviest since 2015, was part of a formation of a low pressure over the Bay of Bengal.

About North East Monsoon

• North-East monsoon– a permanent feature of the Indian subcontinent’s climate system – from October to December – rainfall is experienced over Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh, along with some parts of Telangana and Karnataka
• Winter monsoon season contributes only 11% to India’s annual rainfall. 
• South-west Summer monsoon season between June-September brings about 75% of India’s annual rainfall.
• Many other parts of the country, like the Gangetic plains and northern states, also receive some rain in November and December but this is not due to the northeast monsoon. It is caused mainly by the Western Disturbances.
  • Western Disturbance: It is an eastward-moving rain-bearing wind system that originates beyond Afghanistan and Iran, picking up moisture from as far as the Mediterranean Sea, even the Atlantic Ocean.