The depression from erstwhile cyclone Madi crossed south-east Tamil Nadu coast and sped through the interior before dipping into the Arabian Sea off the Kerala coast.
It had weakened as a well-marked low-pressure area in the process, and weakened further into a rudimentary ‘low’ over Lakshadweep later into Friday morning.
The Met has forecast isolated heavy rain Lakshadweep on Saturday.
Fishermen along and off Lakshadweep and Kerala coasts are advised not to venture out into the sea.
WELCOME SHOWERS Meanwhile, a potent remnant of ‘Madi’ brought welcome showers over many places over Tamil Nadu and Kerala during the 24 hours ending Friday morning.
Chief amounts of rainfall recorded in cm are: Puducherry-10; Madurai-7; Kodaikanal-6; Tondi and Kanniyakumari-3 each; and Cuddalore, Karaikal and Nagapattinam-2 each.
Residual moisture will continue to bring rain spells to many places over Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Lakshadweep variously till Friday next, the Met said.
Meanwhile in the North, a warm western disturbance from across the Indo-Pakistan border may offer some respite from the biting cold.
Western disturbances are low-pressure waves carrying moisture which they pick up from as far away to northwest as the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
BITING COLD The interlude between two disturbances will bring into play colder Arctic winds that blow into the plains of central India.
Night temperatures have fallen by 2-4 deg Celsius at a few places over Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Madhya Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu until Friday morning.
They are currently below 5 deg Celsius over western Himalayan region and ranged from 5-10 deg Celsius over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Madhya Maharashtra.
The lowest 2.2 deg Celsius was recorded at Adampur in Punjab.
They may fall by another 2 deg Celsius over some parts of north-west and adjoining central and east India until Monday.
Colder northwesterly winds filter into Andhra Pradesh and parts of north Tamil Nadu before turning into Karnataka, bringing winter chill occasionally into peninsular interior.