A vigorous North-East monsoon scaled up in intensity over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Tuesday, delivering heavy to very heavy rain at a few places and extremely heavy rain at isolated places. It let off some steam, but still rained heavy late into the day.
Among stations recording the heaviest of rainfall until Tuesday morning included (in cm) Sirkali (31); Parangipettai (26); Anaikaranchatram (24); Chidambaram (20); Taramani (19); Tambaram and Chembarabakkam (18 each); Poonamallee and Chennai airport (17 each); Ponneri and Papanasam (16) each; Kattukuppam and Tiruvallur (15 each); KM Koil, Karaikal, Anna University, Cuddalore (14 each); Sriperumbudur (13); Chennai North (12); Kelambakkam (11); Thiruthuraipoondi, Red Hills, and Mayiladuthurai (10 each).
Thunderstorm accompanied with lightning has been warned over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Rayalaseema.
On Thursday and Friday, heavy rain is forecast at isolated places over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Coastal Andhra Pradesh. On Saturday, it will scale up in intensity, apparently aided by an incoming ‘pulse’ from the Andaman Sea.
The Met sees heavy to very rain at isolated places over Coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and heavy over interior Tamil Nadu, South Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Kerala.
Cloud cover persists The causative cyclonic circulation has moved a little further west from South-West Bay of Bengal to over Sri Lanka and the adjoining Gulf of Mannar (that separates the island nation from the tip of peninsular India).
Another cyclonic circulation is waiting not too far from here, and was located over Lakshadweep and Maldives. Heavy clouds hung over Central Kerala from Kollam to Kozhikode and Wayanad and across to Valparai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
Clouds massed up also along the Tamil Nadu coast from Muthupet, Nagapattinam, Kumbakonam,and Chidambaram. Over Sri Lanka, the footprint covered Monaragala, Ampara and Batticaloa in the East and from Anuradhapura to Point Pedro in the North.
Meanwhile, the IMD has said that a keenly awaited low-pressure area may spring up over the Gulf of Thailand and enter the Andaman Sea later than forecast due to the development of a peer storm upstream in the South China Sea.