Strong winds that battered Kottayam along with heavy showers blew at a speed touching 48km/h on Friday night, according to the data recorded by Automated weather stations.

While the IMD alert was for Pathanamthitta and Idukki on Friday, Kottayam bore the brunt of squally weather and gusty winds. The shower-spell lasted 2 hours and Kottayam recorded 8 cm rainfall which comes under heavy rainfall category. IMD officials said that heavy showers happening within such brief spells result in flash floods.

The winds that hit Kottayam snapped powerlines and toppled trees causing disruption of power supply and traffic. Rain trees fell across the road in many places under the strong impact of wind. The fire and rescue personnel said that many of the roads were blocked by the tree fall.

"We have so far attended 25 calls. Many roads are still blocked. At Nattakom along the port road, we had to work for hours before the trees could be cleared from the road. Our staff are on the field since Friday evening and we still have another 25 calls to respond," said an official with the Kottayam fire and rescue station.

Along with Kottayam, Kannur and Palakkad in Kerala also recorded windspeeds clocking 48km/h. IMD Kerala Director Neetha K Gopal said that cloud height was a crucial factor which caused strong winds in Kottayam.

"Strong winds, lightning and thunder are typical characteristics of summer showers. Clouds with great vertical extent result in strong winds. We have confirmed reports of hailstones in Pathanamthitta. Unlike the halestorm in states like Odisha and Jharkhand, it wasn't severe.

In Kottayam, 8 cm rainfall happened within 2 hours, usually such heavy rainfall is recorded over prolonged periods of time during summer. The heavy showers within a short duration cause damages," she said.

KSEB officials were also in for a taxing schedule attending to calls of power outage. In some places like Eerayilkadavu, trees fell over power lines blocking traffic and cutting off power supply. Squally weather is expected to hit at some places on Saturday and Sunday as well. Between March 1 and March 21, Kottayam has recorded 36% excess rainfall.