Rains hit Tamil Nadu for 2nd day, interiors affected

With the south-west monsoon nearing record-breaking numbers in over 200 years, weather experts say that the rain in July has already surpassed expectations.

On Wednesday, Chennai saw significant rains, increasing and decreasing in intensity over the day. The maximum temperature recorded at Nungambakkam was 28.1 degrees and 28 degrees Celsius at Meenambakkam, while the minimum temperature recorded stood at 25 and 23.3 degrees respectively. These stations recorded 19.3 mm and 24.6 mm rainfall respectively.

Meenambakkam was just 9 mm away from beating the 200-year record of 300 mm as on Wednesday morning. According to weather blogger Pradeep John, popularly known as Tamilnadu Weatherman, the highest rainfall in the area stands at 299 mm, which was recorded in 1888.

“We have a rare upper air cyclonic circulation (UAC) near Tamil Nadu in July-end and the last time this happened was in July of 2007. So almost after 13 years, we might see UAC rains in July for Chennai. The most interesting part is that even though UAC will be there, we get only rains from the land-side, and this time the UAC is perfectly located such that clouds are moving from the seaside in July into Chennai city,” he said.

While there was inundation on Tuesday, the rain did not affect regular life as much on Wednesday. Some areas suffered powercuts for short periods.

The State, too, saw similar patterns of rainfall. The Regional Metrological Department predicted heavy rains in Theni, The Nilgiris, Vellore and Coimbatore, and netizens on Twitter took to showing off the strong thunderstorm in districts like Madurai and Pudukottai. Parts of Chengalpettu and Nagapattinam received 10 cm rainfall, with parts of Triuvallur and Kancheepuram noting 9 cm rainfall.

The prediction for the next few days is that the ghat regions of the State and surrounding districts will continue to have similar thunderstorms for two days. Heavy rains are expected in Dindigul, Salem, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Kancheepuram. Very heavy rains are expected in The Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Vellore and Tiruvallur. “These rains are typical of the season,” said director of the Regional Meteorological Department, S Balachandran. “It is due to the conversion of the easterly and westerly troughs. The rains this year has been good, and should continue for a few days in a mild to moderate capacity across various areas of the State,” he said.