Tsunami won’t hit monsoon: watchdog

Japan's March 11 tsunami posed no risk to the upcoming monsoon, state-run ocean agency has said on Monday even as the Met department mounts a watch on the Pacific for any signs of impact. Pacific's conditions, particularly surface temperatures, have a bearing on India's monsoon.

Japan's March 11 tsunami posed no risk to the upcoming monsoon, state-run ocean agency has said on Monday even as the Met department mounts a watch on the Pacific for any signs of impact. Pacific's conditions, particularly surface temperatures, have a bearing on India's monsoon.

HT Image

"Tsunami is unlikely to alter oceanographic conditions since the massive waves don't actually displace water but energy," SC Chenoy, head of the Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services said.

The Met department is set to make its first monsoon forecast in April-end.

Met department chief Ajit Tyagi had told HT overall conditions were favourable but since ocean temperatures have a bearing on the rain-bearing season, "Pacific conditions will have to be watched".

Chenoy said the Pacific's parameters were indeed important for the monsoon, which is shaped by weather patterns, such as El Nino and La Nina. "But there is no evidence that the tsunami itself can bring about either of these," he said.

El Nino is marked by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, which triggered India's worst drought in three decades in 2009. In 2010, La Nina conditions cooled Pacific waters and helped deliver a normal monsoon. A second straight year of normal monsoon will help India sustain high growth and anchor inflation.