As heavy rains lashed several parts of Kerala, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday issued an orange alert in four districts of the state for the day. The IMD at 4 pm issued orange alert for the day in the northern Kerala districts of Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod. It also issued a yellow alert for all the remaining districts except for Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam. A red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rains of over 20 cm in a 24 hour period, while orange alert means very heavy rains from 6 cm to 20 cm of rain. A yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 6 to 11 cm.