Heatwave conditions persisted over parts of Kerala on Tuesday, with Palakkad recording the highest maximum temperature of 40.4 degrees Celsius, even as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast heavy rain across the State for three days from May 5.
Maximum temperatures were markedly above normal (5.1 degrees Celsius or more) at isolated places in Kerala, and above normal (1.6 to 3 degrees Celsius) in the rest of the State, while the minimum temperature on Monday night was above normal at most places over the State. Kannur recorded a maximum temperature of 38.7 degrees Celsius and Kozhikode 37.8.
Weatherpersons have predicted summer showers to pick up from May 5. “An upper air trough across interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu extending up to 1.5 km above the mean sea level is expected to bring fairly widespread rainfall covering 51 to 75 per cent of the total area of the State from Thursday,” said K. Santhosh, director, Met Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. Dispelling concerns that the delayed summer showers could affect the onset of the southwest monsoon, Mr. Santhosh said there was no direct correlation between the two phenomena to draw such an inference.
The weather outlook from May 8 to 10 also shows rain or thundershowers at isolated places over peninsular India.
The spell of wet weather from Thursday is expected to cover large parts of the country with thunderstorms and squalls or heavy rain likely in north and northeast and central India, Gangetic West Bengal and the peninsular regions. The IMD has forecast a fall in the maximum temperature by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius over the plains of northwest and central India till May 8.
Meanwhile, the government was informed that rainfall during the southwest monsoon this year was expected to be 106 per cent of the long-term average. The onset of the monsoon would be announced after May 15, Mr. Santhosh told a meeting convened by the government here on Tuesday to discuss monsoon preparedness.
