Chennai records worst annual rainfall in 15 yrs

The picture is not encouraging during the ongoing north east monsoon either: Tamil Nadu has recorded a rain deficit of 23 per cent this year, having received only 335.1 mm against 433.1 mm.

“This year, the city has received its lowest amount of annual rainfall after a gap of 15 years,” said weather blogger Pradeep John. In the intervening years, Chennai had recorded annual rainfalls above 100 cm, he added.

It was bleaker in 2003 when it received only 73.8 cm, which was followed by a crippling water scarcity the next summer. According to the data from the weather stations of the Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, Coimbatore airport, Kanniyakumari, Karur Paramathi, Pamban and Udhagamandalam were among the handful of stations were the annual rainfall was above normal.

Coimbatore has recorded 75 cm of rainfall against its usual 59 cm, while Coonoor registered 177 cm of rainfall against the normal 159 cm and Kanniyakumari recorded 91 cm against its normal of 75 cm. Pamban (101 cm against normal of 91 cm), Thoothukudi (72 cm against 63 cm normally), Udhagamandalam (156 cm against 116 cm normally) also recorded positive rainfall.

Among the districts, Dharmapuri (45 cm against 91 cm normal) was the worst hit, followed by Tiruchy (59 cm against 87 cm).

Extending from mid-October to December, the NE monsoon is the primary source of water for TN. But this season, till Wednesday, the city has received only 352.6 mm of rainfall against the normal of 775.9mm, recording a deficit of 55 per cent. Ruling out rainfall in the city till the end of the year, S Balachandran, deputy director general, RMC,  said, “The withdrawal of monsoon will start around December 31 and end in the beginning of January. We may expect rain in the middle of January. Anyway, it is too early to predict now.”