THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:When Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday the government had not received any warning in August about ‘extremely heavy rainfall’ — above 20 cm rainfall in IMD parlance — he was slightly off the mark. The IMD had indeed issued the warning, but just once between July 30 and August 20.
The only such warning came in the August 15 bulletin. This is what IMD’s Meteorological Centre in Thiruvananthapuram said in its daily bulletin: “Heavy (7-11 cm in 24 hours) to very heavy (12-20 cm in 24 hours) rainfall is most likely to occur at a few places with ‘extremely heavy’ (21 cm and above in 24 hours) rainfall at one or two places in Kerala on August 15; heavy rainfall at a few places with very heavy rainfall at one or two places on August 16; heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places on August 17 and heavy rainfall at one or two places on August 18.”
Interestingly, the IMD reported ‘exceptionally heavy rainfall’ in several places in the state in its bulletins on August 9, 15 and 16 although on the previous days, only warnings regarding ‘heavy to very heavy rainfall’ were issued.
At the special Assembly on post-flood reconstruction on Thursday, the CM had blamed lousy weather forecasts for the floods. He had gone on to say the IMD had not adequately warned the state about the possibility of ‘extremely heavy rainfall.’
On August 8, the IMD warned heavy rainfall was likely in ‘one or two places’ in the state. But the August 9 IMD report on rainfall tells a different story. “Southwest monsoon has been vigorous over Kerala. No rain occurred in Lakshadweep. Nilambur reported exceptionally heavy rainfall of 40 cm and Mananthavady 31 cm. Extremely heavy rainfall reports in cm are: Munnar and Peermade (25), Palakkad and Myladumpara (21).’’