Schools and colleges will remain closed on Thursday in six districts in Kerala in view of the rain alert issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the state.
The districts that have declared the holidays are Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Idukki, Ernakulam and Wayanad.
Meanwhile, all the professional exams which are scheduled for the day will not be cancelled.
Some districts of Kerala have been receiving incessant rainfall for the last two days.
The Regional Met Centre of Thiruvananthapuram has issued an orange alert for the districts of Wayanad and Kannur, while a yellow alert has been issued for the districts of Kasaragode, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur, Idukki and Ernakulam.
Earlier on Wednesday, an orange alert was issued for eight districts, including Wayanad, Kannur, Kasaragode, Kozhikode, Idukki, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta, and Thiruvananthapuram.
The IMD has also predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall, very likely along the West Peninsular Coast during the next 3-4 days and over northeast India, likely from June 27 to June 30. The rainfall activity is likely to increase over Northwest India, with heavy to very heavy rainfall likely from June 28 to June 30.
On advancement of southwest monsoons, the IMD said in a press release, “The Northern Limit of Monsoon continues to pass through Mundra, Mehsana, Udaipur, Shivpuri, Siddhi, Lalitpur, Chaibasa, Haldia, Pakur, Sahibganj, and Raxaul. Conditions are likely to become favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into the remaining parts of North Arabian Sea, Gujarat State, Madhya Pradesh; some more parts of Rajasthan; remaining parts of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bihar; most parts of East Uttar Pradesh; some more parts of West Uttar Pradesh; some parts of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gilgit-Baltistan-Muzaffarabad, northern parts of Punjab and northern parts of Haryana during next 3-4 days.”