IMD issues orange alert for six districts in Kerala, heavy rainfall expected

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday (June 23) issued an orange alert in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, and Idukki districts on June 26 and in Wayanad and Kozhikode districts on June 27.

According to the IMD, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam are expected to witness isolated heavy to very heavy rains. The weather department has also forecasted extremely heavy rain in Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts.

The IMD noted that the Southwest Monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of north Arabian Sea, most parts of Kutch, a few parts of the Gujarat region, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and some parts of Uttarakhand.

“Conditions are becoming favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into remaining parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, entire Western Himalayan Region, Haryana, Chandigarh & Delhi, most parts of Punjab and some parts of Rajasthan during next 48 hours,” it said.

The IMD further said the cyclonic circulation lies over interior Odisha at the moment and the surrounding neighbourhood, between 2.1 km and 5.8 km above mean sea level, tilting southwestwards with height, according to news agency ANI.

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The trough at mean sea level runs from northwest Rajasthan to northwest Bay of Bengal across northeast Rajasthan, north Madhya Pradesh, northern parts of Chhattisgarh, southern parts of Jharkhand and northern parts of Odisha and extends upto 1.5 km above mean sea level, the IMD said.

Kerala has already witnessed floods over two consecutive years in the month of December, and the IMD has received flak for it, since it was speculated that the weather forecast agency’s inaccuracy in predicting the amount of rainfall expected and subsequent damage was the main reason behind the floods.

(With inputs from agencies)