The India Meteorological Department has advanced by two days to Sunday its watch for a brewing low-pressure system in east-central Bay of Bengal.
On Friday, the causative upper air cyclonic circulation persisted over east-central Bay of Bengal.
A counterpart cyclonic circulation hung over Kerala also.
Satellite pictures on Friday afternoon showed convective clouds over parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema, south Konkan, east-central and south Bay of Bengal and north Andaman Sea.
The “low” could intensify further, the IMD said, without indicating what direction it would take for onward travel.
Global forecasts continued to indicate the arrival of a westerly trough in time to pick up the system over North Bay of Bengal and dump it over Gangetic West Bengal and further northeast.
WIDESPREAD RAIN
This phase would witness fairly widespread rainfall over the west coast and extreme south peninsular India.
An IMD outlook until Monday said that fairly widespread rain or thundershowers would occur over Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Karnataka, Konkan, Goa and south Madhya Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the 24 hours ending Friday morning saw fairly widespread rainfall being recorded over Konkan, Goa, Madhya Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
It was scattered over Orissa, Marathawada, Rayalaseema and Tamil Nadu and isolated over Uttarakhand, south Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Gangetic West Bengal and Telangana.
An Agro-Met advisory bulletin issued by the IMD said that in view of expected rains over Konkan, Madhya Maharashtra and Marathwada, farmers may wait out weather before harvesting of rice, ragi and other kharif crops.
Irrigation and intercultural operation in the late sown kharif crops may also be postponed in this manner.
The advisory warned that the sunflower crop in Karnataka, groundnut in Andhra Pradesh, coconut, areca nut, pepper, banana and rubber in Kerala are vulnerable to pest attack on account of the weather.
Farmers are advised to undertake appropriate plant protection measures to control the pests and diseases.