Cyclone Nilam crossed the Tamil Nadu coast near Mamallapuram between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening.
Y.E.A. Raj, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai, told Business Line that ‘Nilam’ did not intensify into a severe cyclone.
WINDOW CLOSED
There was a prediction that it might become a severe cyclone but that window effectively had closed as ‘Nilam’ moved very fast on the home stretch, Raj said.
The remnant of the storm will stay active for maximum one day before moving out of the weather charts entirely, he added.
Ahead of the landfall 50-60 km to its south, Chennai or its suburbs didn’t receive the kind of rainfall expected from a storm of Nilam’s strength.
The Chennai Met Centre is in the process of collecting data of rainfall that may have happened in the Mamallapuram-Puducherry belt associated with the landfall. The Regional Meteorological Centre had captured ‘Nilam’ and its track right from day one as it moved initially west before changing track to north-west.
HEAVY RAIN
It had also predicted the landfall time and area to near satisfaction, he added. A weather warning said has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy falls over north coastal Tamil Nadu and south coastal Andhra Pradesh on Thursday.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over Rayalaseema and adjoining north interior Tamil Nadu and south interior Karnataka.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall would lash one or two places over north coastal Andhra Pradesh during next two days.
Gale winds reaching 80-90 km/hr in speed and gusting to 100 km/hr would prevail along and off north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts until Thursday evening.
ROUGH SEAS
Sea condition will be high to very high along and off north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts during next this period.
Fishermen along north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coasts have been advised to stay back home.
A few global forecasts said a remnant of ‘Nilam’ might head towards Karnataka-Konkan coast and emerge into Arabian Sea.
They are watching its likely interaction with a prevailing trough (elongated area of lower pressure) for signs intensification.
Two other agencies said that Bay of Bengal would come to life once again with near-identical stormy conditions during next two weeks.