Agni Natchathiram starts with gusty wind, dust storm and rain in Chennai

CHENNAI: As Agni Natchathiram, indicating dog days ahead, marked its beginning on Sunday, Chennai and its suburbs received gusty winds accompanied by a dust storm, and thunderstorms and rain, resulting in the collapse of electric posts, which saw students taking NEET in the dark, national and international flights thrown off schedule, water logging, and a hailstorm that damaged the roof of a theatre.

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) has forecast that thunderstorms and lightning with light rain are likely to occur in some areas in the city on Monday as well.

Egmore, Perambur, Nungambakkam, Meenambakkam, Triplicane, Tondiarpet, Anna Nagar, Koyambedu, Velachery, Ambattur, and Avadi witnessed moderate to heavy rain. According to RMC, 11mm rainfall was recorded in Nungambakkam and 8mm in Meenambakkam stations.

A dust storm led to flights from Singapore, Madurai, Tiruchy and Coimbatore circling in the sky for more than 15 minutes, unable to land. Similarly, seven flights from Muscat, Sri Lanka, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Salem, which were scheduled to depart from Chennai, were delayed. Eleven flight services were affected at the Chennai Airport.

A north-south trough now runs from cyclonic circulation over the northern parts of the Gangetic West Bengal to north coastal Andhra across coastal Odisha at 0.9 km above mean sea-level.

For the next two days, light to moderate rains at a few places with thunderstorm and lightning, with gusty winds speed reaching 30-40 kmph at one or two places, is likely to occur over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Heavy rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Ghat areas of Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Theni, and Dindigul districts, the release said.

From May 7-10, light to moderate rain at a few places, with thunderstorm and lightning at one or two places, is likely to occur over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

"The city is likely to receive light to moderate rain on Monday, there may be a dip in temperature for the next few days. Moderate thunderstorms and rain occur at a few places over Tiruvallur, Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts. Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Theni, Dindigul and hilly regions will get heavy rain in Tamil Nadu," said P Senthamarai Kannan, deputy director general, RMC, Chennai.

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