Kerala braces for heavy rainfall with orange alert in 10 districts

The Thiruvananthapuram centre of India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued orange alerts for 10 out of the 14 Kerala districts in a district rainfall forecast at 1 pm. In the remaining four southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha, a yellow alert was issued.

Isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected in various districts of Kerala in the coming days, with even isolated extremely heavy rainfall predicted for June 14-17, 2025.

On Thursday, the IMD warned that heavy rain was likely to continue in the coming days, especially in parts of northern Kerala. The state has already been experiencing heavy downpours since earlier this week, and the weather department says the situation could get worse.

In the district rainfall forecast issued on June 11 at the same time, an orange alert was issued only for four districts in northern Kerala: Kasargod, Kannur, Wayanad and Kozhikode.

The ongoing rain is reportedly being caused by a weather system high up in the atmosphere — a cyclonic circulation over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and nearby south Odisha. This system extends nearly 6 km above sea level and is tilted towards the southwest.

Adding to this, a weather trough — or pressure line — is stretching from this system all the way down to coastal Karnataka, passing through Chhattisgarh, Marathwada, and interior Karnataka. This is also contributing to the widespread rain.

Meanwhile, strong winds from the west are blowing over Kerala and Lakshadweep at lower levels, helping to push in even more moisture and trigger more rain.

According to data collected, as of June 13, Kerala has received about 132 mm of actual rainfall this monsoon season. Reportedly, this is a drop of 47 per cent from the normal rainfall usually recorded for this period, indicating a deficient rainfall so far for the state as a whole in June.

Reports suggested that southwest monsoon’s progress stalled from late May, but is expected to revive and intensify in the coming days. The IMD forecast for the second half of June predicts “enhanced rainfall activity with isolated heavy falls very likely over south peninsular India from June 11.”