Heavy rain, accompanied by gale and thunderstorm, pounded several parts of southern and central Kerala on Saturday and Sunday, inflicting heavy loss to farmers and inundating low-lying areas.
According to an official bulletin from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the sudden downpour due to strong westerly wind flow from Arabian Sea to South Peninsular India in lower tropospheric levels is likely to continue and widespread rainfall is expected for the next four days over Kerala and Lakshadweep.
A red alert has been declared in five districts and orange alert in seven districts on Monday warning of extreme and very heavy rainfall. Kodungallur in Thrissur recorded a whopping 20 cm of rainfall, the highest quantity of rainfall for the last 24 hours ended at 8.30 a.m. on Sunday. Aluva and Irinjalakuda received intense rainfall of 19 cm and 16.7 cm respectively, during the same period, while the catchment areas of Neyyar dam in Thiruvananthapuram received 17 cm rain.
