Cyclone Maha Brings Heavy Rains to Kerala; Orange Alert Extended to Ten Districts
Heavy downpour in Kerala and Lakshadweep is set to continue in full swing on Thursday, October 31, as the depression over the Arabian Sea intensified into a cyclonic storm on Wednesday. The cyclone has been named ‘Maha’.
The India Meteorological Department’s Met Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala has issued orange-level alerts in as many as ten districts, where isolated ‘heavy’ to ‘very heavy’ is very likely on Thursday.
The orange alerts for Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragode will continue onto Friday, November 1, whereas the red alert in Lakshadweep will be downgraded to orange.
Multiple parts of Kerala have been drenched by the downpour since Wednesday—the district of Alappuzha recorded 103.3mm rain between Wednesday and Thursday morning, Thiruvananthapuram recorded 76.7mm, Kochi 68.4mm, Kottayam 56.2mm, Punalur 53mm and Kozhikode 23.4mm.
During the same time frame, Amini Divi in Lakshadweep witnessed a whopping 301mm rainfall, while Agati and Minicoy experienced very heavy rainfall of 180mm and 119mm respectively.
During the post-monsoon season from October 1 to 30, Kerala has collectively received 433mm of average rainfall—an ‘excess’ of 47% as compared to the normal. Lakshadweep has also seen 317.8mm, which is 129% ‘large excess’. Considering the rainfall forecast for October 31, these stats may go up further before the month comes to a close.
Meanwhile, Cyclone Maha’s current position puts it 300 km west-southwest of Kozhikode (Kerala) on the mainland. The IMD expects Maha to intensify into a Severe Cyclonic Storm on Thursday morning, and a ‘Very Severe’ Cyclonic Storm by Friday night.
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