CHENNAI: Showers, accompanied by winds, thunder, and lightning, brought Chennai relief from the searing heat of the past couple of days on Monday evening. The Regional Meteorological Centre has predicted heavy rains in the Nilgiris, ghat areas of Coimbatore and some north interior districts for the next few days.

The gusty winds that accompanied rains, brought about by the prevalence of upper air cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal, also affected city traffic as it was the peak time of vehicle movement. On many streets, traffic crawled for a couple of hours. The rain was widespread over the city, especially in Nungambakkam, Egmore, Tondiarpet and Royapuram.

According to popular weather blogger K Srikanth, there are high chances of Chennai receiving more rain in the next 2-3 days based on the wind patterns. "Since the southwest monsoon is getting weaker and with wind convergence on account of the upper air cyclonic circulation, north interior districts will also receive heavy rain in the next few days," he said.

The RMC has forecast heavy rains over isolated places of Vellore, Ranipet, Tiruvannamalai, Kallakurichi and other north interior districts till June 13, apart from the Nilgiris and Ghat areas of the Coimbatore region.