The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday announced the likelihood of a low pressure area developing over east-central and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea within the next 24 hours. This system may require watching since it can make or mar the first pulse of the southwest monsoon that hit Kerala coast on Friday.

The IMD’s numerical weather prediction models, in more definitive terms than a day ago, traced this system moving first in the northern direction parallel to the west coast and then turning in the northwest direction to hit the Oman coast by June 14, intensifying by degrees into a deep depression or even a cyclone.

It can aid the advance of the monsoon northward all along the west coast, or draw away from the subcontinent a major portion of the moisture carried by the onset pulse of monsoon.

As on Saturday, the northern limit of the monsoon continued to pass through Kozhikode in Kerala and Coimbatore and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu.

The IMD said conditions continued to be favourable for the further advance of the monsoon northward to cover coastal and interior Karnataka and some more parts of Tamil Nadu during the next 48 hours.

Kerala and Coastal Karnataka are forecast to get ‘fairly widespread rainfall’ (which will be heavy in isolated places) during the next three days. ‘Scattered rainfall’ may occur over north interior Karnataka and south interior Karnataka and isolated rainfall in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rayalaseema, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep.