NEW DELHI: Defending the national weather forecaster in the wake of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan ’s remarks blaming the India Meteorological Department IMD ) for failing to issue prior warnings of excess rainfall, the Centre on Monday said the department had issued “all necessary severe weather warnings” five days in advance through its office in Thiruvananthapuram."High level officials of Kerala government were briefed in a meeting convened by chief minister on August 9 about the strong monsoon conditions with heavy rainfall activity," said the ministry of earth science (MoES), adding even additional chief secretary (revenue & disaster management) was briefed orally over phone on all occasions.Besides, the ministry said, the weather bulletins issued from Delhi office also carried warnings for Kerala in 'Orange' (prepare for action) and 'Red' (take action) colours about "2-3 days in advance" of the event, advising the disaster managers to be alert and initiate action, respectively.Emphasising on the nature of alert, the MoES said, "It may be noted that the Red alert is the highest alert for issuing heavy rainfall warning and no other alerting criteria than this is adopted by IMD."The MoES - nodal ministry of the IMD - came to the defence of the national weather forecaster in response to Vijayan's remark. The chief minister had last week told the state assembly during its special session on floods that Kerala didn't receive an 'extremely heavy rainfall' warning from the IMD.Sharing time-lines of warnings, issued by the IMD, the MoES in a statement said, "Orange alerts (prepare for action) were issued with effect from August 6, applicable for August 8 onwards, and Red alert (take action) were issued with effect from August 9."Further, for showing the severity of rainfall intensity expected, heavy (7-11 cm in 24 hrs) to very heavy (12-20 cm in 24 hrs) rainfall warning for Kerala state was issued with effect from August 10 for August 14 with 'Orange' alert to Idukki and Alappuzha, 'Red' alert to Wayanad district. On August 11, heavy to very heavy rainfall warning extended for August 15 also with 'Orange' alert to Idukki and Wayanad districts."It said, "On August 15, extremely heavy (>20 cm in 24 hrs) rainfall warning was issued for Kerala state with 'Red' alert to all districts for August 16 and 'Red' alert for seven districts and 'Orange' for the remaining seven districts for August 17."Noting the procedure, the ministry said warnings were uploaded on the local website every day as per the regular practice.Besides, it said, weather forecasts for five days and outlook for subsequent two days, which also include heavy rainfall warning and wind warning, were sent through e-mail to chief secretary, additional chief secretary (revenue & disaster management), SDMA, Navy and special marine enforcement.