THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The fairly widespread rainfall in Kerala is likely to continue on Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted. It said the rainfall is expected to weaken in northern districts by Monday and overall by Tuesday.
The IMD has issued yellow alerts for Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta on Monday. It said the depression over Arabian Sea and low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal have weakened after entering the coast. The rainfall received from October 1 till December 31 will be included in northeast monsoon season. Monsoon withdrawal commenced from west Rajasthan on September 25, and is expected to retreat from Kerala by mid-October, the IMD said.
“The onset of northeast monsoon is expected after the retrieval of southwest monsoon. But we use the rainfall data of October 1 for assessing the northeast monsoon for all practical purposes,” said Rajeevan Erikkulam, a meteorologist with Kerala State Disaster Management Authority.
Kerala was one of the 7 Met subdivisions that got deficit rainfall during the June-September period. However, IMD has predicted normal to above-normal rainfall during the October-December period. The weather experts pointed out that actual rainfall is highly dependent on the weather systems formed during the period.