Rainfall intensity may drop across Kerala, heavy rains in central India: IMD

NEW DELHI: Rainfall intensity is likely to reduce across Kerala on Friday, according to the weather forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), but isolated pockets are still expected to get heavy rains till Saturday.

With the low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal and Odisha that triggered a monsoon deluge in Kerala since Monday moving over south Chattisgarh and Vidarbha, very heavy rainfall will move to Marathwada, Vidarbha, and central Maharashtra on Friday.

The low pressure system is likely to weaken over the next 24 hours. “As the system moves westwards, the rainfall will shift to central India and areas in the Konkan and coastal Goa,” said Mahesh Palawat, chief meteorologists at the private weather forecaster Skymet.

These areas will also experience squally winds reaching 35-45 km/h or gusty winds reaching 55 km/h on Thursday, the forecast said.

India now has an overall monsoon deficit of -8% till August 15, down two percentile from -10% on August 9.

The north-eastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura are also likely to witness heavy to very heavy rainfall from August 18 to August 20.

The north-eastern states have the highest rainfall deficit in India, with Manipur experiencing -65% deficit. In its forecast, the IMD also predicted light dust and haze in Saurashtra and Kutch for 24 hours because of a dust storm in Afghanistan two days ago.