Double monsoon onset develops when the strong convection in the Bay of Beng
al is accompanied by the monsoonlike circulation and appears in the Indian
Ocean in early May, which is about 3 weeks earlier than the climatological
date of the onset (1 Jun). The initial "bogus onset'' is followed by the fl
ow weakening or reversal and clear-sky and dry conditions over the monsoon
region. The best example of such a phenomenon is the development of the sum
mer monsoon in 1995, when monsoonlike perturbations that appeared in mid-Ma
y disappeared by the end of the month and were followed by a heat wave in I
ndia, delaying onset of the monsoon. The climatology of double onsets is an
alyzed, and it is shown that they are associated with delay of the monsoon
rainfall over India. This analysis indicates that the development of bogus
onsets depends on the timing of intraseasonal oscillation in the Indian Oce
an and the propagation of convective episodes into the western Pacific. The
re is evidence that an SST evolution in the Bay of Bengal and the western P
acific plays an important role in this phenomenon. It is shown that in the
case of the double monsoon onset it is possible to predict hot and dry cond
itions in India before the real monsoon onset. In the 32 yr of climatologic
al data, six cases of double monsoon onset were identified.