Rain fury kills 3 in Kerala; sub-zero temp in Kashmir

New Delhi: Heavy rains lashed parts of south India on Monday, resulting in the death of three people and widespread property damage in Kerala, while Kashmir in the north reeled under sub-zero night temperatures.

Rainfall or thundershowers were also witnessed at many places over Gangetic West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, coastal Karnataka, Odisha, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Isolated places in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Telangana, Maharashtra, Goa, and Lakshadweep received showers as well, the weather office said in a bulletin.

In Rajasthan, the Jaipur weather office said isolated places in the south-eastern parts of the state are likely to receive rains in the next few days.

Chittorgarh recorded the lowest minimum temperature of 7.5 degrees Celsius in the state, while Churu recorded a low of 7.6 degrees Celsius.

According to the weather office, the temperatures are unlikely to change much in the next 48 hours.

Several areas in Kashmir were engulfed by a layer of fog on Monday morning as the mercury went below the freezing point. Srinagar recorded a low of zero degree Celsius -- up from minus 0.9 degrees Celsius the previous night.

Officials said Pahalgam recorded a low of minus four degrees Celsius, the coldest in Kashmir. Gulmarg in north Kashmir's Baramulla district recorded a minimum temperature of minus 1.6 degrees Celsius. The mercury at Kupwara in north Kashmir too settled at a low of minus 1.6 degrees Celsius.

Qazigund, the gateway town to the valley, recorded a minimum temperature of minus 1.2 degrees Celsius, while Kokernag town in the south recorded a low of 0.4 degrees Celsius.

The wintry conditions in Kashmir have set in much ahead of the beginning of the extreme harsh weather conditions, which usually start around the third week of December. The meteorological department has said the weather is most likely to remain dry till November 20.

In Kerala, the IMD has issued an orange alert for the districts of Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod. The state Disaster Management Authority informed that in the last 24 hours, the districts of Kollam, Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki and Thrissur were affected the most.

Two toddlers lost their lives in separate rain-related incidents in Kannur and Thrissur districts. A driver was killed in a mudslide incident in Ernakulam.