The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a forecast on Saturday predicting extremely heavy rainfall in Kerala in the upcoming days prompting a red alert in certain districts for May 19 and 20. The districts of Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, and Idukki were placed under this red alert. Moreover, an orange alert was issued for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, and Ernakulam for the same two days.
The weather department also issued an orange alert for nine districts on May 21, suggesting that some of them may experience rainfall akin to that of a red alert, as per a report on PTI.
The IMD also forecast the likelihood of thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds occurring at one or two places in Kerala from May 19 to 22.
For Saturday, an orange alert was issued for Pathanamthitta, Idukki, and Malappuram districts.
In IMD's classification, a red alert signifies heavy to extremely heavy rainfall exceeding 20 cm within 24 hours, while an orange alert denotes very heavy rainfall ranging from 6 cm to 20 cm. A yellow alert indicates heavy rainfall between 6 to 11 cm.
Earlier on Thursday, the IMD had predicted very heavy rainfall in Kerala from May 18 to 20, attributing it to the likely prevalence of strong westerly and southwesterly winds in the region.
Meanwhile, the Regional Meteorological Centre predicted heavy rainfall in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh due to cyclonic circulation.
In Rayalaseema, Amaravati Meteorological Centre Scientist, Dr Karuna Sagar said, "Today and tomorrow we are going to expect scattered rainfall and thereafter we are going to expect isolated rainfall... Over coastal Andhra Pradesh, today we are expecting scattered rainfall and rest of the days we are expecting only isolated rainfall. But from today to the next five days, we are expecting thunderstorm lightning... So today we are expecting heavy rainfall in Rayalaseema, coastal Andhra Pradesh."