More spells of heavy rain over the weekend in Ker; Met dept

The 'vigorous' southwest monsoon over rain-battered Kerala will bring in more heavy spells during the weekend in that state, besides Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the regional weather office said today.

The Southwest monsoon has been 'vigorous' over Kerala and 'active' over Telangana, Lakshadweep, coastal Karnataka and south interior Karnataka, the Regional Meteorological office here said in its daily weather report.

Rainfall occurred at most places over Kerala, Lakshadweep, Karnataka, Telangana and at a few places over Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the last 24 hours ending 8.30 AM today, it said.

In its heavy rainfall warning for August 18, RMC said "heavy to very heavy rain" was likely at isolated places over coastal Karnataka.

"Heavy rain is also likely to occur at isolated places over ghat areas of Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Theni, Dindigul and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and south interior Karnataka" tomorrow, it added.

The weatherman has forecast heavy rains at isolated places over North Kerala, coastal Karnataka and its south interior parts on August 19.

According to the observations recorded at 8.30 AM today, Chinnakalar in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu topped the rain charts at 26 cm, followed by Castle Rock in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka with 22 cm.

Peermade (Idukki dt) in Kerala recorded 19 cm.

Kerala has been witnessing monsoon fury for the last few days, with more than 100 people dying in rain-related incidents in just one day yesterday.

The overall fatalities stand at 173 since the second spell of heavy rains began on August 8.