As predicted by Skymet Weather, rains in Kerala have once again picked up pace, courtesy Very Severe Cyclone Fani. In span of 24 hours from 8:30 am on Monday, Cannur, Kozhikode, Punalur and Cochin recorded 13mm, 3mm, 7mm and 9mm of rains, respectively.
At present, very severe cyclonic storm Fani is centered at latitude 11.7°N and longitude 86.5°E, about 650 km east-northeast of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, 680 km east-southeast of Chennai, Tamil Nadu and 750 km southeast of Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
With this, weather conditions would remain favourable for rain and thundershowers to continue for another 24 hours.
The very severe cyclonic storm Fani which is located southeast and adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal has infused a fresh surge from the Arabian Sea and is causing rains in Kerala. This has led to formation of convective clouds in Arabian Sea and in the proximity of Kerala.
Since this system would stay in the southwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining areas, we can expect some more rain activities in next 24 hours, with moderate rains and heavy at isolated places. State authorities have already issued an alert for the eight districts such as Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad.
Thereafter, as the system moves away northwards, rains would start receding. This is because of the change in wind direction from southwesterlies to northwesterlies. These winds will travel almost parallel to the coast and thus, will not bring in any rains. These moist winds from the southwest have been bringing in rains over the coastal state.
It is expected that this very severe storm Fani would intensify into an extremely severe cyclonic storm in next 36 hours. But by that, it would move away towards Odisha.
For Kerala, pre-Monsoon normal rains are intense but March saw deficit rains by 53%. April too started on the deficient note, which has pushed the deficiency to 70% in the first half of the month. But rains returned to Kerala from April 17 to 20, when it rained heavily. Thus, reducing the deficiency to 32%. Thereafter, it was quiet for few days and in the last two days, Kerala has been witnessing moderate rains in wake of Very Severe Cyclone Fani.
For the fresh pre-Monsoon activity to resume, we will have to wait for this powerful system to clear which will take minimum of four days to make a landfall.
Image Credit: YUV News
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com