Rain batters capital, traffic disrupted

Heavy rain lashed parts of the state on Friday and Saturday, leaving low-lying areas of cities heavily flooded and causing major traffic disruptions. The movement of trains was also disrupted. Some of the trains arriving at Central Station in Thiruvananthapuram were delayed as traffic was affected due to soil subsidence on the tracks between Nemom and Thiruvananthapuram. Railway sources said traffic was restored by the Railways in the afternoon.

City traffic was also severely disrupted due to rains that hit the capital areas and adjoining areas including East Fort bus stand, Pazhavangadi road and Thampanoor, disrupting vehicular traffic and submerging low-lying areas in the city and outside the city for some time. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which issued a yellow alert for the capital on Saturday, raised the alert to orange in the evening, warning that the spell was more intense.

The current spell of rainfall, which has caught people in the capital off guard, was due to the combined impact of multiple systems prevailing in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal; these include a trough extending from the cyclonic circulation over the east central Bay of Bengal to the Lakshadweep district across the western central Bay of Bengal, the southwestern Bay of Bengal and the Comorin region at 5.8 km above mean sea level.

Meanwhile, the southwest monsoon advanced over the southwestern and southeastern Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep Islands, Comorin region, southwestern, southeastern, west central and east central Bay of Bengal and parts of northeastern Bay of Bengal on Saturday, according to a weather bulletin issued by IMD on Saturday. The bulletin stated that conditions are suitable for further advancement of southwest monsoon rains over the next 4-5 days.

Meanwhile, Urumi in Kozhikode recorded the highest rainfall (11 cm) in the last 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Saturday. This was followed by Ernakulam South with 10 cm, Kochi, Mattanchery and Palluruthy in Ernakulam with 9 cm each and Cherthala in Alappuzha (8 cm). Thiruvananthapuram city also witnessed around 6 cm of rain during the day.