The Hindu Business Line : Heavy rains forecast as low pressure over Bay stays put

THE National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) has maintained its outlook for widespread rains with heavy to very heavy falls for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry for the next two days.

In its weather update on Wednesday, the centre said that the low-pressure area over southwest Bay of Bengal, off south Tamil Nadu - Sri Lanka coast, persisted with associated upper air cyclonic air circulation extending up to a height of 5.8 km above sea level.

The other cyclonic circulation lying over the southeast Arabian Sea also persisted, holding the shear zone of monsoon turbulence intact. Although harsh on coastal Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, the rains will bear down with lesser ferocity over certain other areas such as interior Tamil Nadu, south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

Rains in these parts will be scattered to fairly widespread, interspersed with isolated heavy falls. Karnataka, Rayalaseema and Lakshadweep will also experience scattered to fairly widespread rains during the period.

During the 24 hours ending 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday, fairly widespread rains with isolated heavy rainfall have been reported from Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. Moderate rainfall occurred over south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Chief amounts of rainfall (cm) are: Sirkali - 11; Parangipettai and Mayiladuthurai - nine each; Chidambaram and Kozha (Kerala) - nine each and Karaikal, Panruti, Tiruvidaimarudur and Thuckalay - seven each; Cuddalore, Cheyyur, Srimushnam, Kumbakonam and Jayankondam - five each.

The NCMRWF maintained its outlook for isolated to scattered rain/snow over the next four-five days for Jammu and Kashmir under the influence of a western disturbance expected to approach the region during the weekend. Isolated rainfall activity is expected over the Northeastern States, West Bengal, Sikkim and coastal Orissa for the next two days.

Meanwhile, a tropical depression 23W (named in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy) and located approximately 670 nautical miles east of Manila has been tracking westward, says the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) of the US Navy.

Tipped to make a landfall over Luzon in the Philippines, the system is seen weakening until its re-emergence in the South China Sea by the weekend. From here, it's a hop over to the Bay of Bengal but as of now, no weather model indicates the crossover of the system into the Indian territorial waters.

Model predictions by the Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) Group suggest that the system will kick up steam to upgrade itself as a Category 1 storm (wind speeds reaching 65 knots) by Sunday but revert back to being a tropical depression the very next day (55 knots).

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