CHENNAI: December is supposed to mark the fag end of the North East Monsoon. Not this time, however. According to data from the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, the downpour on December 12 was a whopping 2,119 per cent more than the normal rainfall in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
In some districts, the fury of the monsoon on Thursday was such that they recorded more than double of the overall surge, with Tenkasi reporting 5,977 per cent rise. The absolute numbers are also high. The normal rainfall that the district should have received was just 3.1 mm. However, what it received was 118.4 mm.
Similarly, its neighbour Tirunelveli also recorded an increase of more than 5,000 per cent on December 12. On the day, the district received 228.9 mm (extremely heavy rain in weather department parlance) against the expected rainfall of mere 4 mm.
Besides them, Tirupur (normal: 1.1 mm, actual: 49.8 mm, departure; 4,424%); Karaikal (normal: 4.6 mm, actual: 203 mm, departure: 4,313%); Ariyalur (normal: 3.6 mm, actual: 161.6 mm, departure: 4,388%); and Thoothukudi (normal: 2.7 mm, actual: 116.2 mm, departure: 4,204%) also recorded an increase of more than 4,000 per cent.
In Chennai and its neighbourhood, the heaviest rainfall and highest departure on December 12 was in Tiruvallur where the actual rainfall was 91.7 mm against the normal of 7.1 mm, an increase of 1,191 per cent.
Kancheepuram came close second with 112.3 mm actual rainfall against the normal of 8.8 mm, which works out to a spike of 1,176 per cent.
Chengalpattu’s normal rainfall is 7.2 mm but the actual was 69.9 mm (871% increase), while it was 62.1 mm actual rainfall as against 6.9 mm normal in Chennai, an 800% increase.