The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned fishermen not to venture out to the sea off the Kerala, Karnataka and Lakshadweep coast till July 13. An orange alert was issued by the department for four districts Kerala on July 12 and a yellow alert was announced until July 16. Heavy rains are likely to be witnessed in Kerala in the coming four days. Until July 13, there will be heavy winds of 40 km per hour off the coast of Kerala, Karnataka and Lakshadweep, the IMD said.
The IMD has issued an orange alert for Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts of Kerala and a Yellow alert for Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur and Palakkad districts. The Southwest Monsoon has reached almost all parts of the country but has stayed away from parts of north India. It is yet to reach Delhi, Haryana, parts of west Uttar Pradesh and west Rajasthan. The IMD had predicted that monsoon is expected to cover these parts by June, a little less than a month ago, but its predictions are yet to come true.
The IMD said that heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, the Gujarat region, Madhya Maharashtra, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam, Telangana, coastal and south interior Karnataka, Kerala, Mahe, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal. It has also issued alerts for several north Indian states and a red warning for coastal Maharashtra.
It said thunderstorms accompanied by lightning and gusty winds (with a speed of 30-40 km per hour) are very likely to occur at isolated places over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Telangana. Meanwhile, twenty people were killed by lightning strikes in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as many places in north India received showers on Sunday.
With PTI inputs