Satellite pictures on Monday evening showed a mass of thunderstorms off the North Tamil Nadu Coast being sheared further to the North towards Tirupati, Sulurpeta, Nellore, Kavali, Chirala and Machilipatnam on the South Andhra Pradesh coast. Towards the South, clouds persisted over the Nagapattinam-Tondi stretch and the southern central half of Kerala.
The last 24 hours reported rain or thundershowers at a few places over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kerala, Mahe and at isolated places over Rayalaseema, Coastal and South Interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal. Chief amounts of rainfall (in cm) are: Quilandy and Ernakulam-7 each; Mattancherry-6; Piravom-5 (all Kerala); Rameshwaram-5, Paramakudi-4; Kalambakkam and Namakkal-3 each.
South China Sea storm
India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the proceedings are being controlled by a cyclonic circulation persisting over the South-West Bay of Bengal off the South Sri Lanka coast, ideally positioned to pump in the rain-bearing easterlies into the South Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu coasts. Apart from this, a trough connected this circulation with the South-East Arabian Sea off Kerala.
Tropical storm Algae, located over the South China Sea, has been acting as a pulley beyond to direct some of the flows into the Bay. Numerical projections suggest a couple of cyclonic circulations/easterly waves forming afresh in the Bay, followed by another in the Arabian Sea, which will sustain the flows until November 10.
Rains for South Peninsula
An extended prediction valid for three days from Saturday hinted at the possibility of fairly widespread to widespread light to moderate rainfall with isolated heavy falls likely over Tamil Nadu, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Coastal and South Interior Karnataka and Kerala.
The US Climate Prediction Centre sees a seemingly unending barrage of thunderstorms readying to invade the entire East Coast of India from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha during the week November 8 to 16.
Weather bloggers’ take
Weather bloggers in Chennai and elsewhere had to say the following about the build-up: