Heavy rain likely in Kerala till July 3; IMD issues yellow alert in four districts

Heavy rainfall is expected to lash Kerala till July 3 and a yellow alert has been sounded in several districts in the state.

Thiruvananthapuram: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that Kerala will continue to receive rainfall till Monday (July 3). In Kerala, the monsoon has become more intense, causing isolated areas of the state to experience heavy to very high rainfall. The IMD sounded a yellow alert in four districts- Alappuzha, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod on Friday (June 30). These districts are likely to receive rainfall ranging from 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm.

Yellow alert in districts in the coming days:

July 2- Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasaragod
July 3- Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, Kasaragod

The IMD has warned the public to exercise extreme caution to prevent accidents caused by the rain.

The first month of the monsoon season saw the country get 136.5 mm of rainfall as opposed to the average of 157.7 mm, a deficit of 13% as of June 29. This is according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The two states with the least rainfall in June were Kerala and Bihar, with 69 percent and 60 percent less rain than average for the month.

In contrast to the typical rainfall of 151.1 mm in June, Bihar only received 47.5 mm. Kerala saw rainfall of 251.1 mm as opposed to the 621.9 mm that is typical for the season. On June 8, Cyclone Biparjoy, which had formed in the Arabian Sea around that time, delayed the southwest monsoon's arrival over Kerala and caused it to continue. After Biparjoy made landfall in Gujarat's Saurashtra and Kutch regions on June 15, the monsoon quickly moved forward.