Kerala rains: Orange Alert for 8 districts, heavy rainfall with thunderstorm lashes several parts

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 21: After a slight dip in its intensity in the last few days, several parts of Kerala witnessed heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning, on Thursday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert districts to the districts like Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Idukki, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, and Kannur.

Whereas a 'Yellow alert', predicting isolated heavy rainfall, was issued for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, and Kasaragod districts for the day.

"Southwest monsoon has been active over Kerala. Rain occurred at most places in the state and at a few places in Lakshadweep," an IMD statement said here.

Parambikulam in Palakkad district received 12 cm rains while Palluruthy in Ernakulam and Enamakkal (Thrissur) and Mannarkkad (Palakkad ) received 11 cm and 9 cm each rainfall respectively, according to the statement.

Fishermen were advised not to venture into the sea in the state as squally weather with wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph is likely to prevail over the Kerala coast on Thursday, it added.

The southern state was ravaged by heavy downpour and subsequent landslides in the south-central districts On October 15 and 16 which resulted in the loss of 42 lives and six people going missing.

A Red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rains of over 20 cm in 24 hours, while Orange alert denotes very heavy rains from 6 cm to 20 cm of rains. A yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 6 to 11 cm.

PTI