MAY 18: Even the weatherman is surprised. The arrival of the pre-monsoon showers almost 10 days before schedule and the ``unusually high rainfall'' recorded at the Santacruz station has upset all his calculations. Blaming a trough off the west coast for the downpour, the Meteorological Department has predicted rains for the next two days also.The Santacruz observatory today registered record rainfall for the month of May, the highest since 1951. The observatory recorded 139.8 mm of rain and the last time the weatherman was surprised by the rain gods was on May 25, 1951, when his instruments indicated 54.4 mm of rainfall.Colaba observatory recorded no such surprises and registered only 59.3 mm of rain. Met Department records indicate that the highest rainfall in the jurisdiction of this observatory was 126.2 mm on May 29, 1893.The temperatures dropped considerably. From a humid 34.6 degrees celsius in Colaba on Monday, the maximum temperature dropped to 27 degrees today. Santacruz also registered a drop in maximums. The maximum recorded today was 26 degrees celsius, eight degrees less than that recorded at the beginning of the week.The surprise showers are because of a trough formed along the west coast. In the weatherman's lingo, there is a ``trough of low pressure along the west coast'' which is causing the rains. A senior Met Department official explains: ``The trough of low pressure is running along the coast from south Gujarat to Kerala. The system will continue to have effect for a day or two. Ironically, there is no rain in the drought-affected areas because of the system.''This time last year, the city had experienced its first drizzle. But on the whole there was very little rainfall in May and the onset of monsoons was actually delayed by a few days. The first pre-monsoon shower is expected only in the last week of May, and the normal onset date for the monsoons is June 10.Revealing the forecast for tomorrow, an official at the Met Department said, ``We are expecting heavy to very heavy rains, accompanied by gusty winds. The sea is likely to be very rough and fishermen are advised not to venture out.''Any other information will apparently only be available once New Delhi has held its press conference and announced the arrival of the monsoon on the Kerala coast. ``We cannot say anything about whether an early onset of the pre-monsoon showers indicate an early departure of the monsoons,'' says a Met official. ``Early pre-monsoon showers don't necessarily mean shorter duration of monsoons. But things will be clear only once the official announcement is made.''
