A remnant of erstwhile cyclone ‘Vardah’ that scythed through the peninsular interior through Monday night and Tuesday morning has dropped prodigious amounts of rain along the way.

The remnant has weakened into a low-pressure area and appeared to have stepped out into the Arabian Sea off the Mangaluru coast, according to satellite pictures available on Tuesday evening.

Storm weakens After landfall on Monday evening, ‘Vardah’ moved west-southwestwards and weakened into a conventional cyclone and, by Tuesday morning, into a depression over north interior Tamil Nadu.

It further weakened into a well-marked low-pressure area over north interior Tamil Nadu and adjoining south interior Karnataka at 8.30 am.

It is this overnight journey that helped the system pour down in torrents the moisture it had mopped up from the Bay of Bengal and carried along the way.

In the bargain, heavy to very heavy rainfall with exceptionally heavy falls was recorded across the interior peninsula over Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

According to the India Met Department (IMD), the spell continued through Tuesday at many places over north interior Tamil Nadu and adjoining south interior Karnataka and north Kerala.

Heavy rains Some of the heaviest rain recorded (in cm) during the 24 hours that ended at 8.30 am on Tuesday were:

Tamil Nadu: Satyabhama University (Kancheepuram) - 38; Kattukuppam (Kancheepuram) - 34; Kancheepuram (Kancheepuram) - 28; Kalavai (Vellore) - 23; Poonamallee (Tiruvallur) - 22; Chembarambakkam (Tiruvallur) - 21; Meenambakkam - 20; Sriperumbudur (Kancheepuram) - 17; Yercaud (Salem) - 15; Alangayam (Vellore) - 15; Tambaram (Kancheepuram) - 14; Nungambakkam - 12 and Vellore - 11.

coastal Andhra Pradesh: Atmakur (Nellore) - 13; Vinjamur (Nellore) - 12; and Udayagiri (Nellore) - 11.

Rayalaseema: Tirumala (Chittoor) - 15; Puttur (Chittoor) - 14; Nagari (Chittoor) - 12; Chittoor - 10; Kodur (Cuddapah) - 10; and Satyavedu (Chittoor) - 10.

Fresh spell? ‘Vardah’ has left a ‘trough’ in trail along the coast of Tamil Nadu and adjoining Sri Lanka, as could be discerned from satellite pictures on Tuesday.

This sets up a conducive environment for a fresh spell of rain along the coast during the course of the week, as per consensus predictions by various global models as well as IMD.

This spell may materialise on and off along the coast and the hinterland until December 20 (Tuesday next), depending on the strength of an incoming ‘easterly wave’ originating from South China Sea.

All global models surveyed agreed on this emerging churn in the South-West Bay of Bengal off Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka coasts.

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