Yellow alert for northern and central Maldives as weather worsens

The national weather forecasting body, Maldives Metrological Service (Met Office) has issued a yellow alert for northern and central Maldivian atolls as the weather worsens again.

In this regard, the yellow alert has been issued from Haa Alifu Atoll to Vaavu Atoll.

While the yellow alert was initially in effect from 6:30am to 9:30am on Wednesday, it has now been extended until 13:30pm this afternoon.

Met Office states the region can expect torrential rain and thunderstorms during these hours.

According to Met Office, northern and central Maldivian atolls can expect torrential rain and thunderstorms over the next 24 hours while southern atolls can expect scattered showers although the overall weather will mostly be favorable in the region.

Winds in southern atolls will range from 3 to 10 miles per hour, from the northwest and east direction, while in the northern and central atolls, winds will range from 8 to 18 miles per hour, from the northeast to east direction, which may gust up to 35 miles per hour during showers.

Rough seas are expected in northern and central atolls during showers. However, seas will be mild southern atolls.

Met Office has previously attributed the ongoing bad weather spell to a low-level circulation formed to the east of Maldives which is moving westward.