Rains to continue for next 48 hrs in city: weatherman

The 67 mm rainfall on Tuesday that played spoilsport by disrupting normalcy is the second highest for a single day in the month of May. Tuesday’s rainfall in the city, also the month’s second highest rainfall recorded since May 20, 2010 (109.9 mm) resulted in water stagnation in many parts of the city, especially north Chennai. 

Residents in Teynampet, Perambur, Koyambedu and Ayanavaram woke up to see their streets flooded by overnight rain. Greater Chennai Corporation engaged the super sucker machines to drain the stagnated water but complaints continue to pour in. 

“Our locality was the worst affected due to the overnight train and we couldn’t get any help from the Corporation till noon,” a resident of Gurusamy street in Perambur said. It may be noted that though trees were uprooted in many parts of the city, Corporation workers provided quick relief by clearing the roads. India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its bulletin said that the well-marked low pressure area over north Sri Lanka and adjoining areas of Gulf of Mannar and southwest Bay of Bengal has now concentrated into a depression. 

“The depression now lay centred about 240 km south-southeast of Chennai at 8.30 am on Tuesday and is likely to move towards north, northwest during next 12 hours and northwards thereafter along north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh coasts,” said the bulletin.

The weatherman also informed that the depression is likely to intensify into a deep depression during next 48 hours. Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai in its forecast warned that heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at few places over North Coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and similar but isolated rainfall over North Interior Tamil Nadu between 1 pm on Tuesday and 8.30 am on Wednesday.

Apart from this, isolated heavy rainfall is likely to occur in South Tamil Nadu during the same period. “Between 8.30 am on Wednesday and 8.30 am on Thursday, heavy to very heavy rain is likely to occur at one or two places over North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,” the Chennai Regional Forecast pointed out. 

However, the weatherman has not predicted rain or thunder-showers in the following days. As the sea condition along and off north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts would be rough to very rough during next 48 hours, fishermen were advised not to venture into sea in these areas during the same period.