The much-awaited monsoon is likely to hit Kerala on Sunday or in the following two days, even as rainfall activity continued in the northeastern parts of the country, the weather department said on Saturday.

While the heat wave has abated from many parts of the country, temperatures are not likely to go down further. They may rise in Delhi and nearby areas, Indian Metrological Department officials at Safdarjung office in New Delhi said.

"Pre-monsoon showers have occurred in Kerala and Karnataka," IMD official, Dr S K Subramanian, said.

Stating that conditions were becoming favourable for the onset of the monsoon over Kerala, he said the monsoon trough is forming over the Gangetic plain and the offshore trough off Kerala and Karnataka. In another positive indication, he said, the peninsular wind was changing to westerly and south-westerly directions.

Meanwhile, rain lashed parts of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Sikkim and some parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal. The showers will also continue in adjoining Bihar and West Bengal in the next two days.

Subramanian said the heat wave has subsided in many areas though it still persists in east Rajasthan, Telangana, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, and parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh.